Neurological disorders refer to diseases that affect the central and the peripheral nervous system. The disorders occur due to either bacterial, viral or parasitic infection that directly affects the nervous system or a reaction to the infection by the immune system. These disorders have no specific time of occurrence; however, they affect human during development. Additionally, they have grown to attract spiritual intervention. This article discusses two neurological disorders that can occur in development; epilepsy and sleep disorder, their effect on development and researchers view on spirituality.
According to Engel and Pedley (2008), epilepsy is a group of neurologic conditions characterized by recurrent, unprovoked epileptic seizures. Whereas, epileptic seizures are "are a transient occurrence of signs and symptoms due to the abnormal excessive or synchronous neural activity in the brain." Sharma, (2013), expounds further that, the seizures involve a disturbance in the functioning of the brain and can result in severe motor, autonomic and sensory dysfunction. The seizures begin in the brain, and common symptoms include temporary confusion, a staring spell, uncontrollable continuous jerking of the arms and legs, psychic symptoms and loss of consciousness
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The history of the disorder has been traced to have existed from the time of antiquity. Its clinical description is correctly captured in an Assyrian-Babylonian textbook more than three millennia old. Engel and Pedley, (2008) explain further that epilepsy is one of the most common brain disorders affecting at least one person out of ten in an average lifespan. Nearly a half of the people diagnosed with epilepsy have an identified causal factor. Some of the known causes of epilepsy are a genetic inheritance, head trauma, brain injury, and infections from diseases causing organisms, prenatal damage and autism. The occurrence of the disorder occurs from the fetal to old age. However many incidents are concentrated at early ages of development (Sharma, 2013). Health practitioners have successfully devised treatment of Epilepsy and involved anti-seizure medication or surgery; nevertheless, many people with epilepsy have been able to fully recover from their first medication after diagnosis (Wyllie, Gupta, & Lachhwani, 2006).
Sleep disorder which includes Narcolepsy is a neurological condition that disrupts the ability of one to control the sleep-wake cycles. As such, affected person exhibit excessive daytime sleepiness lasting for varying durations; a few seconds to minutes. There has been no accurate determination of the cause of its existence though, known causal factors include, genetic inheritance, trauma, psychological stress, toxins, and infections. Like many neurological disorders, Narcolepsy develops at any stage of development. However genetically inherited symptoms and new cases are prevalent in young children. In fact, increased prevalence of the disorder in Irish, Swedish and Finnish children led to the suspension of GlaxoSmithKline’s flu vaccine Pandemrix (Culebras, 2000).
Diagnosis of sleep disorder, more so Narcolepsy is done by administration of a small questionnaire known as the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. The scale involves a series of monitored sleep cycles that determined the level of sleep deprivation. Once diagnosed with the disorder, patients can only be substantially helped, not cured. Treatment focuses on therapeutic response as such, optimal management of symptoms highly varies depending on the patient (Culebras, 2000).
Neurology and spirituality have sparked a lot of research interest as confirmed by (Sayadmansour, 2014). Most research on the two subjects relates neurological and spirituality in four main areas: Holistic function, quantitative function, binary function and causal function. The neurological disorders have also been linked with religion and spirituality. According to Nakken and Brodtkorb, (2011), some epileptic cases are reported to experience religious feelings and develop religious delusions that last up to several days. Furthermore, some religious people including prophets, saints and cult founders have temporal lobe seizures. On the other hand, sleep disorders related to spirituality and religion. In a study conducted as per (Ellison, Bradshaw, Storch, Marcum & Hill, 2011), it was noted that spirituality had a curative effect on sleep disorders, Narcolepsy included. Activities such as meditation and regular prayer improve the quality of sleep.
As discussed above it is clear that neurological disorders are common in human and can affect them at any stage of development. However, children are more prevalent as compared to adult as observed from the two disorders discussed. The field of neurology and religion are closely related. Their interdependency has attracted research linking neurology as the basis of understanding religion. Epilepsy is also closely related to an enhancement of the spiritual experience. Lastly, religion is believed to suppress sleep disorder. As a whole, the two disciplines bear a high potential for research primarily on how they are interrelated.
References
Culebras, A. (2000). Sleep disorders and neurological disease . New York: M. Dekker.
Ellison, C., Bradshaw, M., Storch, J., Marcum, J., & Hill, T. (2011). Religious Doubts and Sleep Quality: Findings from a Nationwide Study of Presbyterians #090709revised. Review Of Religious Research , 53 (2), 119-136. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13644-011-0019-0
Engel, J., & Pedley, T. A. (2008). Epilepsy: A comprehensive textbook . Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Nakken, K., & Brodtkorb, E. (2011). Epilepsi og religion. Tidsskrift For Den Norske Legeforening , 131 (13-14), 1294-1297. http://dx.doi.org/10.4045/tidsskr.10.1049
Sayadmansour, A. (2014). Neurotheology: The relationship between brain and religion. Iranian Journal Of Neurology , 13 (1), 52-55. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3968360/
Sharma, A. (2013). Seizures and epilepsy in children. Pediatrics in General Practice , 80 (11), 925-935. doi:10.1007/s12098-013-1173-x
Wyllie, E., Gupta, A., & Lachhwani, D. K. (2006). The treatment of epilepsy: Principles & practice . Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
