Encephalopathy is a term that refers to brain disease, damage, or malfunction. Encephalopathy can present a very broad spectrum of symptoms that range from mild, such as some memory loss, delirium or subtle personality changes, to severe, such as dementia, seizures, coma, or death.

In general, encephalopathy is manifested by an altered mental state that is sometimes accompanied by physical manifestations (for example, poor coordination of limb movements etc).

The term encephalopathy, in most cases, is preceded by various terms that describe the reason, cause, or special conditions of the patient that leads to brain malfunction. For example, anoxic encephalopathy means brain damage due to lack of oxygen, and hepatic encephalopathy means brain malfunction due to liver disease.

Additionally, some other terms either describe body conditions or syndromes that lead to a specific set of brain malfunctions. Examples of these are metabolic encephalopathy and Wernicke’s encephalopathy or Wernicke’s syndrome.

There are over 150 different terms that modify or precede “encephalopathy” in the medical literature.

The causes of encephalopathy are both numerous and varied. Examples of causes of encephalopathy include (These examples do not cover all of the potential causes of encephalopathy but are listed to demonstrate the wide range of causes):

• Infectious (HIV, Neisseria meningitidis, herpes, and hepatitis B,C).
• parasites, or prions).
• Alcoholism.
• Hepatic and hepatic damages (for example, liver failure or liver cancer).
• Uremic (renal or kidney failure).
• Metabolic diseases (hyper- or hypocalcemia, hypo- or hypernatremia, or hypo- or hyperglycemic).
• Brain tumors, brain anoxia/hypoxemia (lack of oxygen and brain cells destruction).
• Toxic chemicals (medical factories, paint/color factories, radiation, lead, ammonia etc).
• Alterations in pressure within the brain (often from bleeding, tumors, or abscesses).
• Infection

Many allopathic drugs may cause encephalopathy; for example, posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) may occur due to the use of drugs like tacrolimus and cyclosporine etc (confusion, seizures etc).

Despite the numerous and varied causes of encephalopathy, at least one symptom present in all cases is an altered mental state. The altered mental state may be subtle and develop slowly over years (for example, in hepatitis the decreased ability to draw simple designs, termed apraxia) or be profoundly obvious and develop rapidly (for example, brain anoxia leading to coma and/or death in a few minutes). Often, symptoms of altered mental status can present as inattentiveness, poor judgment, or poor coordination of movements.

Other serious symptoms are:

• lethargy,
• dementia,
• seizures,
• tremors,
• muscle twitching and myalgia,
• Cheyne-Stokes respiration (an altered breathing pattern seen with brain damage and coma), and
• coma.

Often the severity and type of symptoms are related to the severity and cause of the brain disease or damage. For example, alcohol-induced liver damage (alcoholic cirrhosis) can result in involuntary hand tremors (asterixis), while severe anoxia (lack of oxygen) may result in a coma with no movement.

Other symptoms may not be as severe and maybe more localized such as cranial nerve palsies (damage to one of the 12 cranial nerves that exit the brain). Some symptoms may be very subtle and result from repeated injury to the brain tissue. For example, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), due to injuries like concussions repeatedly, may cause slow changes over time that are not easily diagnosed. Such injury may lead to chronic depression or other personality changes.

Similar symptoms can occur in the perinatal period if the neonate had any compromise to brain blood flow during its development.

• Rasmussen’s encephalitis is a rare disease that is seen in children that progresses to intractable seizures if untreated. It may be due to autoantibody development.
• Another rare form of encephalopathy that usually develops in younger people (about ages 4-20 years) is the MELAS syndrome (“Mitochondrial Encephalopathy, Lactic Acidosis, Stroke-like episodes”).

Diagnosis of encephalopathy is usually made with clinical tests done during the physical examination (mental status tests, memory tests, and coordination tests). Usually, the diagnosis occurs when the altered mental state accompanies another primary diagnosis such as chronic liver disease, kidney failure, anoxia, or many other diagnoses.

Consequently, physicians may utilize several different tests at the same time to diagnose both the primary condition (the cause of encephalopathy) and the encephalopathy itself. This approach to diagnosis is done by most physicians, because encephalopathy is a complication that occurs because of a primary underlying health problem. The most frequently utilized tests are listed below with some of the major primary causes the tests may help diagnose the condition. Specific testing is usually ordered by the treating physician according to the symptoms and history of the patient.:

• Complete blood count or CBC (infections or loss of blood)
• Blood pressure (high or low)
• Metabolic tests (blood levels of electrolytes, glucose, lactate, ammonia, oxygen, and liver enzymes)
• Drugs or toxin levels (alcohol, cocaine, amphetamines etc)
• Blood and body fluid cultures and analyses ( for infections)
• Creatinine (kidney function)
• CT and MRI scans (brain swelling, anatomical abnormalities, or infections)
• Doppler ultrasound (abnormal blood flow to tissues or abscesses)
• Encephalogram or EEG (brain damage or abnormal brain wave patterns)
• Autoantibody analysis (dementia caused by antibodies that destroy neurons)
• Other medications (especially allopathic for example, cyclosporine etc).

Treatment of encephalopathy varies with the primary cause of the symptoms and thus design a treatment plan to reduce or eliminate the cause(s).

Here are some examples of different “encephalopathy treatments” for different causes:

• Short-term anoxia, hypoxemia (less than two minutes): Oxygen therapy
• Long-term anoxia: Rehabilitation
• Short-term alcohol toxicity: IV fluids along with Vit-B1, or no therapy
• Long-term alcohol abuse (cirrhosis or chronic liver failure): Oral lactulose, low-protein diet, antibiotics or antivirals.
• Uremic encephalopathy (due to kidney failure): To correct the underlying physiologic cause, dialysis, kidney transplant.
• Diabetic encephalopathy: Administration of glucose to treat hypoglycemia and insulin to treat hyperglycemia
• Hypo- or hypertensive encephalopathy: Medications to raise (for hypotensive) or reduce (for hypertensive) blood pressure.

The key to treatment of any encephalopathy is to understand the basic cause

Static encephalopathy (an altered mental state or brain damage that is permanent and impossible to treat in allopathy). The best that can be done with static encephalopathy is, to prevent further damage and implement rehabilitation to allow the individual to perform at his/her highest possible functional level.

Homeopathic treatment for encephalopathy

Homeopathic treatment of encephalopathy varies with the primary cause of the symptoms and thus design a treatment plan to reduce or eliminate the cause(s), for example:

Short-term and/or long term anoxia, hypoxemia (less than two minutes):

Aspidosperma, China Officianalis, Ferrum Metallicum. Vanadium Metallicum, Coca, Calceria Carbonicum, Gelsemium, Carbo vegetabilis, Arnica montana, Conium Maculatum etc.

Alcoholism (short term or addicted):

Arsenicum Album, Helleborus Niger, Viscum Album, Medorrhinum, Aethusa cynapium, Cannabis indica, Ignatia Amara, Nux Moschata etc.

Uremic encephalopathy (due to kidney failure):

For kidney disease and failure please visit these websites “Click Her for websites, Calculus and Failure.

Diabetic encephalopathy:

For diabetic encephalopathy treatment please Click Here.

Hypo- or hypertensive encephalopathy:

For the treatment of hypotensive and/or hypertensive encephalopathy please Click Here.

For infectious encephalopathy please Click Here, Here (liver), Here (flesh/muscles etc) and for viral Here and Here.

For Viral encephalopathy please Click Here (zika) and Here (virus) and Here (cancers and tumors).

Encephalopathy due to brain/nervous system diseases Click Here (meningitis), Here (dementia), Here (seizure), Here (Alzheimer’s disease), Here (lethargy) etc.