Multiple Sclerosis Rehabilitation
How can physical therapy help alleviate the symptoms of multiple sclerosis?
Physical therapy can be very helpful for patients that have multiple sclerosis. There are different types of multiple sclerosis, but for most people that have multiple sclerosis they have exasperations of their disease and then they have remitting periods. There are times when the neurological impact from the disease process in their brain or in their spinal cord flares up on them and they lose their physical abilities rapidly. After appropriate treatment from their neurologist and once they get the disease process back under control again then they are often left with new physical limitations that they didn't have before the flare up of their disease process. So, often the neurologist will ask a physical medicine and rehab doctor or physiatrist doctor to get involved. They would evaluate that person's physical limitations and then design a therapy programme for them. That, generally, includes a physical therapist. It may also include an occupational therapist and, sometimes, a speech therapist. They would design that therapy programme and then observe the patient through that programme to help restore them back to what physical abilities they had before the exacerbation of their disease.
