Ataxia is a rare disorder that affects both children and adults. I was quite surprise to find that very little statistics have been conducted on ataxia. this may be due to the understanding that Ataxia is not a specific disorder, rather, a condition can cause ataxia including multiple sclerosis, head trauma, cerebral palsy and infections.
Ataxia affects a child’s coordination, balance and speech while some children are born with ataxia as a result of genetics, others develop it in a progressive matter. Signs and symptoms of Acute Cerebellar Ataxia include:
- Frequent stumbling
- Impaired coordination affecting arms or legs
- Unsteady gait
- Uncontrolled eye movement
- Difficulty performing fine motor task
- headaches
The following are facts and statistics on the Ataxia disorder:
- It is a degenerative disease of the nervous system
- Symptoms, often mimic being drunk in adults such as slurred speech
- Age of symptom can vary from childhood to late adulthood
- rare recessive genetic disorder
- occurs between 1 out of 40,000 and 1 out of 100,000
- The word ataxia refers to clumsiness or a loss of balance and coordination
- The ataxia gene was first identified in 1993
- Ataxia is inherited
- Ataxia is a sign of an underlying disorder
- It is caused by damage to different areas of the central nervous system
- The most common symptom in children is an unsteady gait
- In some cases, ataxia can present itself rapid while in others, it is progressive.
- The most common cause of acute ataxia in children are excessive drug ingestion and drug intoxications
- There are from 50 to 100 different types of Ataxia.