When Should We Consider Going to a Neurologist?

 

When someone recommends that we go to a neurologist, be it another healthcare professional or a relative, it generates a feeling of uneasiness and fear, because we usually associate neurology with a serious disorder, an irreversible disorder, a degenerative disorder, a disorder that causes dependency. However, this is not always the case.

It is true that in neurology, diseases with dramatic courses, gloomy prognoses that generate a permanent disability are managed, but diseases with a very good prognosis are also treated and in which the help of a good professional will improve our quality of life.

In this post, New York-based neurologist David Schick is going to try to demystify the visit to the neurologist, giving it a reassuring and confident character and thus avoid the suspicion that is usually generated by the mere mention that a consultation is going to occur.

The main reasons for consultation in Neurology have to do with discomfort, complaints, symptoms, which are very common: headache, feeling of instability, dizziness, confusion, memory loss are some of these examples. The key issues in most neurological diseases have to do with the time of onset, the course of the discomfort and the existence or not of other accompanying symptoms.

"I have this dizziness for six months”

"My head hurts since adolescence”

"I am clueless since I retired”

These are common phrases in a Neurology, and it is the first question that the professional usually asks if the patient has not expressed it spontaneously.

In general, David Schick explains that a disorder that appears suddenly is of cerebrovascular, epileptic or accidental origin. If it is rapidly progressive, for a few hours or a few days, it is of infectious or inflammatory origin with an aggressive course. If it develops over weeks or months it can be chronic infectious, deficiency, toxic-metabolic, tumor or moderate inflammatory. If, on the other hand, it has been developing for years, it can be degenerative.

It is essential that the neurologist knows approximately how long the discomfort started. It is of great importance to all professionals.

The Course of Discomfort in Neurology

This is the second aspect that Neurology Specialist David Schick usually asks about, if, as already mentioned, the patient doesn’t share it himself.

You have to know if the course is stationary, "I've been like this all my life, nothing has changed"; if the course is progressive, "with each passing day the intensity of the symptom is greater, each day I feel worse"; if the course is recurrent, "the dizziness comes and goes, I'm sick for two days and then a week well"; or if the course was shortened, that is, it lasted a while and disappeared "I was bad for a week and I had no more symptoms."

Usually those symptoms that do not change over time are benign, a migraine, for example. Those that have a progressive course can be toxic-metabolic, tumorous, degenerative. Those that have a recurrent course are usually inflammatory or hormonal in origin. Those that have a shortened course are usually infectious or toxic.

The course and intensity of the symptom in neurology are essential to establish the severity and speed of the diagnostic and therapeutic measures to be taken by professionals.