Causes of Cerebral Palsy: Origins, Etiology, Aetiology, Causal Pathways
“While cerebral palsy occurs in about 2.5 per 1000 live births, the component diseases grouped under the cerebral palsy rubric occur much more rarely. This rarity means they are seldom observed as outcomes in intervention studies and make cohort studies impractical, leaving the less scientifically rigorous retrospective study designs with multi centre recruitment as more attainable alternatives. Multi centre studies require inter-observer agreement concerning, disease identification, but the different component diseases are not always easily identified. Attempts on the basis of currently available clinical description have met with limited success.?

-Stanley, Blair & Alberman
Cerebral palsy has its origins in: genetic and non genetic factors; variables that can be controlled and variables that can not be controlled; single cause and multi cause pathways; hidden and obvious influences; cultural and trans cultural effects; and most frustratingly, combinations of all of the above. The human brain is a profoundly subtle and complex organ, and cerebral palsy – the name given to those cerebral traumas that result in a specific family of symptoms – is no less subtle and complex in its origins or etiology. About 6,000 new cases of cerebral palsy are introduced to the United States in a given year with an estimated cost of $20 billion dollars annually to care for these individuals.

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Causes of Cerebral Palsy: Origins, Etiology, Aetiology, Causal Pathways