Health sciences face a great challenge in the 21st century: deciphering and treating neurological diseases, a branch that is especially threatening in a country like ours. Spain is in a clear trend of aging of the population -the most affected by these health problems-, since according to the latest data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), last year a new maximum of aging of 133.5 was triggered. % (133 people over 64 for every 100 under 16).
Both factors make research into neurological diseases and the need to train professionals dedicated to their treatment a matter of the utmost importance, especially if one takes into account that in 2050 Spain will be the second oldest country in the world, just for behind Japan (INE).
In addition, although it may seem that neurological diseases are in the minority, in Spain there are already more than seven million people who suffer from them. The world situation is even more alarming, with practically a third of the world’s population under a diagnosis of this type of ailment, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Parkinson’s is the most widespread neurological disease in the world, with seven million patients and 150,000 in Spain alone, as revealed in its latest report by the Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN). On the other hand, the WHO warns that the prevalence of this disease has doubled in the last 25 years.
In fact, the lack of nurses and other professionals specialized in how to treat people with Parkinson’s has become one of the major complaints of the units dedicated to it in the large Spanish hospitals.
Although all these diseases are mostly diagnosed in older people, they can also occur in children: epilepsy is the most common neurological disease among children, with more than 100,000 cases diagnosed in Spain, out of a total of 400,000 affected, according to data from the SEN.
The entity highlights that each year some 20,000 new cases of this disease are diagnosed in Spain, mainly in children and people over 65 years of age, which means that 3% of the Spanish population will suffer from epilepsy at some point in their lives.
However, Juan José Poza, coordinator of the Epilepsy Study Group of the Spanish Society of Neurology, recalls that “having a seizure does not mean that you have epilepsy” and that “up to 10% of the population will have a seizure throughout of lifeâ€, which is why neurological problems affect millions of people.
The advance of neurological diseases and the lack of professionals to investigate and treat them has generated a spiral that demands more trained personnel. Quality training is absolutely necessary to be able to enter the battlefield of brain diseases, a fight that needs as many volunteers as possible.
The SEN Master’s in Clinical Neurology will enable you to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills in the main areas of the department: cerebrovascular diseases, movement disorders, neuromuscular diseases, multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases of the central nervous system, headache, among others.
If you want to specialize in mental disorders associated with the nervous and muscular systems, through clinical and instrumental techniques for the study, diagnosis and treatment of various pathologies, such as epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, cerebrovascular accidents, Parkinson’s, among many others that trigger problems in motor functions, speech or learning, perception or mood, you will be interested in the Master’s degree in neurology plus an expert master’s degree in neuropsychology.
Another field of specialization is offered by the Master’s Degree in Neuroanatomy and Functional Neurology plus a Master’s Degree in Clinical Neuropsychology, where you will study in depth the anatomy of the entire nervous system, from the microscopic anatomy of neurons and neuroglia, the meninges and irrigation of the brain, the Central and Peripheral Nervous System, and the hemispheres and the cerebral cortex.
