Cerebral palsy – Treatment – NHS

There's currently no cure for cerebral palsy, but treatments are available to helppeople with the conditionhave anormal and independent a life as possible.

Children and adults with the condition are cared for by a team of healthcare professionals, who will work with you to come up with a care plan.

This plan will be continually reassessed as the person'sneeds change.

Physiotherapyis a treatment that involves techniques such as exercise and stretching to help maintain and hopefully improve movement. It's one of the most important treatments for cerebral palsy.

The main goalsof physiotherapy are to:

A physiotherapist will teach you some exercises to strengthen and stretch your child'smuscles. You can do these with your child every day.

They may also provide walking aids (such as a walking frame or walking sticks) if needed, and/or special arm or leg braces (called orthoses) to support the limbs.

Speech therapy can help children who have trouble communicating by allowing themto practise their speech with exercises, or teaching them an alternative method of communication, such as sign language or pictures.

A speech therapist may also be able to provide special equipment to help your child communicate, such as a computer connected to a machine that generates speech.

Younger childrenmay be given a device similar to a laptop that's covered with symbols of everyday objects and activities. The child then presses a combination of symbols to communicate.

Watch avideo about speech and language therapy for more information.

Occupational therapy involves a therapist identifying problems that you or your child have carrying out everyday tasks.

They can advise you on the best way to carry out activitiesthat require complex movements, such as going to the toilet or getting dressed.

Occupational therapy can be extremely useful in boosting your child's self-esteem and independence, especially as they get older.

There are medicationsthat canhelp relieve several of the symptoms of cerebral palsy.

These include:

It's unlikely you or your child will need to take all of these medicines.

Speak to your care team if you have any questions about a medicine that's been offered, including why they recommend it and what side effects it might cause.

Some people with cerebral palsyhave difficulty swallowing food.

This can be serious because it can mean they're at risk of choking or developing achest infection as a result of accidentally inhaling food. Long-lasting feeding difficulties could also lead to malnutrition.

Treatments for swallowing problems include:

A feeding tube can either be passed into the stomach through the nose or directly into the stomach through the skin of the tummy.

Read more about treatments for swallowing difficulties.

Drooling problems are common in people with cerebral palsy.

While not usually serious, the excess saliva can irritate the skin around the mouth, which may increase the risk of the skin becoming infected.

Treatments that can help with excessive drooling include:

Some people with cerebral palsy may need surgery to help with movementdifficulties or other problems.

Surgery can be carried out to:

If your care team suggests surgery for you or your child, speak to them about what results you can expect, what therisks areand what the recovery period might be like.

For some types of surgery it can take months or even years for the full benefits to be achieved and extensive physiotherapy may be needed to help aid recovery.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has more information onselective dorsal rhizotomy for spasticity in cerebral palsy (PDF, 59kb).

Page last reviewed: 15/03/2017Next review due: 15/03/2020

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Cerebral palsy - Treatment - NHS