Neurology
Introduction
Physiotherapy in neurology is one of the three main core areas of physiotherapy. Physiotherapists are specialised to assess & treat vast amount of neurological impairments and conditions.
The objective of physiotherapy in neurology is to help influence changes in "neuroplasticity" and increase efficiency of neuromuscular or neurosensory excitation - the following section will help you to understand this role.
Examples of conditions physiotherapists will see include; stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease & Gillian Barre syndrome.
What is Neuro Physiothapy?
Neuro physiotherapy concentrates on rehabilitating or maintaining function of people with a neurological impairment.
There are three main objectives of neuro physiotherapy;
Symptom management - influence and protect patients against negative symptoms of their neurological impairment such as spasticity.
Neuroplasticity - the brain has shown ability to "re-model" itself through repetitive function exercise practice which can (at best) lead to movement recovery or (at worst) maintain current ability.
Neuro-transmission - to improve the efficiency of the message transmission from the brain to the muscles or the sensory nerves to the brain.
What Do Neuro Physios do?
As specialist physiotherapists, you are trained to perform an in-depth neurological assessment and to perform necessary treatment.
A neurological assessment is similar to an MSK assessment in some ways, however, goes into a lot more detail on things that are specifically nerve and brain related
Treatment in neurology is typically function based at first and then broken down into specific impairments. For example, the aim might be to allow someone to stand up by themselves - which we could practice multiple times with help from others. However, we may also need to address a specific deficit with very specific exercises or treatments.
The two below sections go into further detail on the assessment and treatments seen in neurology.