Brain Disease

As with any part of the body, the brain may be attacked by various disease processes. In mentioning them here, the point is that small symptoms are to be taken seriously; they may be the initial signs of either physical disease of the brain or mental illness of psychological origin. It takes a doctor to tell the difference.

Infections of the brain or its coverings will be accompanied by the acute signs of infection, such as fever, pain, and toxic feeling. There may be simultaneously disturbances in behavior. In the same way the brain may be invaded by tumors or cancers, with a combination of physical and emotional symptoms. Injury to the brain may have the same double effect, and so may disturbances of the blood supply.

Strokes are the result of either broken blood vessels producing bleeding in the substance of the brain, or blocking of the vessels producing temporary or permanent loss of function of the part of the brain supplied by the vessel. Particularly in the case of so-called "small strokes," the changes in personality may overshadow such physical symptoms as paralysis or loss of speech.

The brain can be poisoned, as other organs can be. This is especially true with alcohol, and sedative drugs, such as the barbiturates. These characteristically produce alterations in behavior, and mental as well as physical symptoms.

The brain has some diseases peculiar to itself. Among these are the so-called "degenerative" diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or the diseases in which the insulating material of nerve cells is lost, such as multiple sclerosis. The early symptoms of these diseases may be difficult to understand and may seem psychological when they are actually physical. Another such disease is Parkinson's disease—paralysis agitans, known to our elders as the "shaking palsy"—characterized by stiffness of the joints, tremor of the hands, change in facial expression, and difficulties in walking.

Another disease peculiar to the brain is epilepsy. This may be likened to an explosion in the normal electrical activity of the brain. Depending on the part of the brain in which the abnormal electrical discharge takes place, various symptoms can result. The patient may have brief twitching or loss of contact (petit mal epilepsy) or may have behavioral disturbances of an extreme sort (psychomotor epilepsy). Most commonly he may have an epileptic seizure (grand mal epilepsy), with a warning cry, unconsciousness, and some of the following symptoms—stiffness, jerking, tongue-biting, loss of control of bowel and bladder, and, afterwards prolonged sleepiness.

Fortunately, very, very few epileptic attacks result in death; the patient usually recovers spontaneously. The occurrence of such an attack, however, demands medical attention. It may point to a growing brain cancer, or in an older person to a stroke, as well as to the disease of epilepsy itself.