Did you know that there are more than 600 known neurologic or nervous system diseases? They can occur when something goes wrong with your brain, spinal cord or nerves that make up your nervous system.
Neurological diseases can be difficult to diagnose, but symptoms may include trouble moving, speaking, swallowing, breathing or learning. If you have a neurological disease, you may also have problems with your memory, senses or mood.
Types of neurological diseases include muscular dystrophy, spina bifida, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, neuropathy and epilepsy.
Here's what you need to know about neurological disorders, and how a treatment called infusion therapy can be used to ease or eliminate the symptoms of these conditions.
What is infusion therapy, and how can it help?
Infusion therapy, or intravenous therapy, is one way to treat or manage neurological conditions or disorders of the nervous system. Infusion therapy involves administering medication directly into the bloodstream to change or alter the immune system, said Todd Levine, MD, a neurologist at HonorHealth Neurology.
Dr. Levine said an early form of infusion therapy that you're familiar with is chemotherapy, which kills cancer cells and weakens bone marrow but boosts your immune system activity. Over the years, infusion therapy has become more sophisticated to target a very specific part of the immune system.
"There are now dozens and dozens of these drugs," said Dr. Levine. "Instead of poisoning the whole body, we find the part of immune system that is the problem and target that. There are fewer side effects, and we still get beneficial effect."
Why infusion therapy?
Dr. Levine, who has been practicing in Phoenix for more than 20 years, specializes in treating neuromuscular disorders and has conducted dozens of clinical research trials on diseases of the nervous system. He says infusion therapy can be an effective treatment for a neurological disease because it can be simpler than taking a daily pill or shot and can result in fewer side effects and greater longer-term relief.
"By getting an infusion every six months, maybe you feel bad the one day you receive the infusion, but the rest of the time you feel normal," said Dr. Levine. "The general consensus is that infusion treatments have less negative impact on your quality of life and are more effective than the older therapies."
What can you expect?
If you can benefit from infusion therapy, you'll receive it monthly or a few times a year at an infusion center. HonorHealth Neurology has an infusion center next door to the practice for patients' convenience and comfort. A nurse places an IV and monitors you throughout the treatment, ranging from two to six hours.
While a small number of patients may experience a day or two of mild to moderate side effects like fatigue, headache or fever after the treatment, the goal is to get you to a point where you can receive treatments without the side effects.
What conditions can infusion therapy treat, and does it work?
Neurologists at HonorHealth use infusion therapy to treat patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, dermatomyositis, Guillain-Barre syndrome, migraines and/or chronic headaches, multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, neuropathy and polymyositis.
Results of infusion therapy vary, depending on the disease, but Dr. Levine says he often sees dramatic improvements in his patients.
For example, during the last year his office saw a woman with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, a disease that presents with gradually progressive weakness over weeks and months. She had reached the point where she couldn't walk, was in a wheelchair and couldn't take care of her children. Within three months of receiving infusion therapy, she was walking independently again.
"Not everything gets better with infusion therapy, but if you have the right type of neuropathological disease, it's pretty miraculous how it works," said Dr. Levine. It can be particularly effective in stopping the progression of multiple sclerosis. "Multiple sclerosis is a condition we often treat," said Dr. Levine. "There have been a lot of new drugs in the last few years that are very effective. MS is a very different disease than it was years ago.
"The goal of infusion therapy is to make the patient stronger — if it's a nerve or muscle disease — and if it works, the effects are very dramatic. That's the goal."
