Victims of certain kinds of neurological disorders can involuntarily start crying or laughing. This is commonly called 'pseudobulbar affect' (PBA). This is in fact, a common sign among patients suffering from mental disorders like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis. This can also affect people with dementias, brain infections and injuries.
Scientists believe that a number of American suffer from PBA. Though the studies estimate an approximate number of 2 million cases, the actual figure may be as high as 7 million! In many cases, PBA is mistaken to be depression.
In order to treat this disorder, certain combinations of medications were found to be potentially effective. Two drugs are commonly used to treat this symptom -- a low dosage of quinidine and another medication called dextromethorphan. While dextromethorphan regulates the behavior of the victim, quinidine balances any abnormalities in heart rhythm. A combination of these two drugs is found to potentially reduce the severity and incidence of PBA among victims thus improving the quality of life.
There is no particular therapy that has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) so far. The drugs used to treat PBA have their own set of potential problems and side effects. Hence, for the safety of patients, it is better not to go for off-label drugs that could result in complications in the future.
However, rigorous research is on to gain a federally approved therapy for PBA patients as it can be very socially disabling. Studies need to be conducted on a bigger set of patients in order to arrive at any rigid conclusions.
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