Neurology is a branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of organic diseases affecting the central or peripheral nervous system.
The central nervous system is represented by the brain and spinal cord. To these are added the surrounding structures as well as the blood vessels that nourish them. When we refer to the peripheral nervous system, we think of the cranial nerves, nerve roots and spinal ganglia, peripheral nerves, including connections with skeletal muscles.
The central nervous system can suffer from congenital disorders with a wide variety of causes and manifestations.
Acquired conditions are influenced by lifestyle, genetic predisposition and various co-morbidities. Among the most common are ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke, Parkinson’s disease, brain tumours, epilepsy in its various forms, bacterial and viral infections – encephalitis, myelitis, meningitis, multiple sclerosis, various types of dementia, headaches, migraines. Last but not least, cranio-cerebral and vertebro-medullary trauma.
The peripheral nervous system is not spared either. Here we review conditions such as neuropathy, diabetic polyneuropathy, neuralgia, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, neuromas (peripheral nerve tumours), muscular dystrophies, myositis and trauma.
A rigorous history and clinical examination, together with carefully conducted paraclinical investigations, reveal the diagnosis.
Neurology must be distinguished from psychiatry, although the two specialties are closely related, both aiming to treat the nervous system. It has been shown that many neurological conditions also have associated psychiatric manifestations through complex neuro-chemical mechanisms.
Nevertheless, psychiatry remains the specialty that treats mental illness, being a synthetic discipline whose main focus is mental health addressing psychological, socio-cultural, political and pharmacological factors.
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