4 replies to this topic

[eon]

I'm getting ready to see my primary care physician sometime this week. I'll be asking about seeing a neurologist. I do have a head injury (not brain injury as far as I know but I think any head injury had to had some effect on the brain). Maybe the psychiatric issues I have was rooted from this injury, maybe I was predisposed to it regardless, maybe my life stresses had something to do with my psychiatric problems, etc. What I'm trying to get at here is to see if a neurologist could bring in something different than what a psychiatrist could. I'm hoping a neurologist could actually see the "physical" activity of my brain to see if there's any issues with it that could be corrected. What "tests" should I be asking for from a neurologist? Aren't they the ones that will do a CT scan and so on?

[vader]

Likely you will get an MRI, but don't have your hopes high. Take some photos if you notice eyelid dropping, uneven muscles, etc. Neurologists treat mainly strokes, dementias / Parkinsons / Alzheimer / MS and migraines. Everything else will be a pain in the ass to diagnose.

 

They routinely miss tumors in the brain (the most common ones, ie. prolactinomas), so yeah. Ask her to do a basic checkup too, check basic reflexes, pupil dilation / Horner, etc. Although i do recommend to do some basic reflex checkups on yourself (for example bulbocavernous reflex), they are pretty easy to do and getting them checked by a doctor can be embarrassing.

Edited by vader, 18 October 2015 - 03:29 PM.

[eon]

So having a head injury doesn't count as being a good idea to visit a neurologist just to see what's up? For prevention? So those diseases you mentioned are not preventable then is what you're saying since you seem to have made it sound dismissive to see a neurologist by saying it's a pain in the ass?

Edited by eon, 19 October 2015 - 05:34 AM.

[vader]

When did you have a head injury? In childhood? Head injury in childhood is a predictor of psychiatric problems in adulthood, but overall, there is no known agent to regenerate what was lost in the brain (if anything).

 

Post-stroke symptoms tend to either resolve in a few months to 2 years or never, similar time-frame is for brain injury. The brain plasticity has its limits. If you have rare disease (<10/100 000 occurrence), then diagnosis will be extremely hard almost always.

[eon]

I see. Yes, I spoke with my doc she said usually anyone seeing a neurologist is when something JUST happened, not a while ago. Such as a stroke and or a recent head injury that just occurred. 

 

I heard recently that my dad had a head/brain tumor, but I may need to confirm if this is exactly what he had. Not sure if this is telling me something, and if genetics play a role that maybe in the future I need to look out for tumors, etc.