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Prader Willi Syndrome

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Prader-Willi syndrome is the most common known cause for life-threatening child obesity. Although the causation is quite complex, there are many available treatments to the wide variety of symptoms that this disease will bring (Genetics Home Reference, 2016).
Description:
Prader-Willi syndrome(PWS) is a disease caused by spontaneous genetic mutations in chromosome 15 which is evident in the early development of a fetus. Specifically, there is a deletion or a loss of genes from that chromosome. Dr. Prader, Dr. Willi, and Dr. Lambert were the first people to describe the features of PWS in 1956. Since that first time, more and more information on Prader-Willi syndrome has begun to be understood (Encyclopedia, 2016). This genetic disease is capable …show more content…

This part of the brain is responsible for controlling hunger, thirst, body temperature, pain, and controls when a person falls asleep and awakens. Due to the fact that the hypothalamus controls such a wide variety of functions, a person with PWS will experience different types of symptoms including: feeding and metabolic, physical, intellectual, behavioral and psychiatric. These symptoms can be classified into two different groups based off of the individual's age (Foundation for Prader-Willi Research, …show more content…

This stage brings the common symptoms of PWS, or those “food seeking” behaviors. A person will start to feel unsatisfied in their intake of food and not be able to feel full. If not monitored, this will lead to compulsive eating and an extreme weight gain. Along with this, people with PWS have a lower than usual metabolic rate. This requires a restricted amount of calories, something very hard to maintain with this disease. Physical symptoms that occur in stage two deal with the size of the person. An individual with PWS will be much shorter than others around the same age. This includes small hands and feet, which is accompanied by a curving of the back known as scoliosis. Behavioral problems will become clear in this stage through obsessive compulsive symptoms. This may be shown through picking of the skin, hard to control emotions, and tantrums. These problems will then lead to excessive sleepiness or disturbances in sleep patterns. High pain thresholds have been known to appear as a part of stage two (UKS National Institute of Child Health and Human Development,

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