Corticobasal degeneration
There's currently no cure forcorticobasal degeneration (CBD) and no treatment to slow it down, but there are lots of things that can be done to help manage the symptoms.
Carewill be provided by a team of health and social care professionals working together. This is known as a multidisciplinary team.
Members of yourmultidisciplinary team may include:
A care plan will be drawn up in discussion with your team. This will outline the treatments you need to help with the symptoms of CBD , as well as the support and advice you require to make your life easier.
There are currently no medications that treat CBD specifically. Depending on the person's symptoms or complications, the following may be used:
In general, people with CBD are sensitive to medication side effects. Doses may start low and be increased gradually.
Some medications should be avoided completely, such as haloperidol (a medicine used to treat some mental health problems).
Cognitive stimulation is a type of therapy used to treat dementia, and it may be helpful if a person with CBD has dementia symptoms.
It involves taking part in activities and exercises designed to improve your memory, problem-solving skills and language ability.
Regular exercise can help strengthen your muscles, improve your posture and prevent stiffening of your joints.
They can teach you breathing exercises to use when you eat, to reduce your risk of developing aspiration pneumonia (a chest infection caused by food particles falling into your lungs).
A speech and language therapist can help assess and treat speech and swallowing problems .
They can teach people a number of techniques to help make the voice as clear as possible and can advise you about suitable communication aids or devices that the person may need as CBD progresses.
A therapist can also advise you about different swallowing techniques and, working together with a dietitian (see below), they may suggest altering the consistency of your food to make swallowing easier.
You may be referred to a dietitian, who will advise you about making changes to your diet, such as including food and liquids that are easier to swallow, while ensuring that you have a healthy, balanced diet .
Feeding tubes may be recommended for severe swallowing problems, where the risk of malnutrition ,weight loss, fatigue and dehydration is increased. You should discuss the pros and cons of feeding tubes with your family and care team.
The decision about whether and when to consider a feeding tube depends on the individual and should be discussed with a specialist.
It can be offeredat any stageof CBD, alongside other treatments.
Palliative care can be received:
They share these plans with both their family and the health professionals involved in their care.
This can be useful in case you're unable to communicate your decisions later on because you're too ill. However,you don't have to do it if you don't want to.
Issues that you may want to cover include:
If you decide to discuss these issues, they can be written down in a number of ways:
Your care team can provide you with more information and advice about these decisions and how best to record them.
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Read about corticobasal degeneration (CBD), a rare condition where brain cells become damaged over time and certain sections of the brain start to shrink.
Read about the main symptoms of corticobasal degeneration (CBD), and find out how they progress over time.
Read about how corticobasal degeneration (CBD) is diagnosed, including what tests and scans may need to be carried out.
Read about the main treatments for corticobasal degeneration (CBD), including medications, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy.