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| More research is needed to try and find the central cause and cure for Infantile Spasms. However, research into orphan disorders like infantile spasms often suffers from a lack of funding. To help with needed research, please click the donation button on the side.
Over the last decade, there has been steady progress in attempting to understand the underlying mechanisms of IS, including how the brain is formed and how it functions, gene 'mapping' and understanding which gene is responsible for what process. The brain is extraordinarily complicated, controls the workings of the whole body and is, of course, very difficult to examine directly, so research into curing and preventing brain disorders is very complex and costly.  More research is also needed for a comprehensive approach for optimal management of children with IS, including access to and evaluation by a variety of professionals, including child neurologists, pediatricians, psychiatrists, rehabilitation services (physical, occupational and speech therapy), nurses, vocational rehabilitation counselors, neuropsychologists, social workers, and pharmacists. For children already affected, treating the seizures more effectively is the most realistic hope of current medical research benefiting them; medicines are being developed all the time so that the range of treatments is wider and they are being refined to make them more effective whilst producing fewer side effects. Apart from medical research, enormous strides are being made in the development of educational and therapy strategies, aids and equipment. |
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