Rehabilitation medicine and neurological conditions | Patthama Likitwittaya, MD

Dr. Pingping | Patthama Likitwittaya, MD

Rehabilitation medicine specialist

The miracle of rehabilitation medicine

Patthama Likitwittaya, MD, or Dr. Pingping, a rehabilitation physician, shares a powerful view of the discipline of recovery, which she likens to a "miracle" that lets patients who have lost the ability to live their lives stand on their own feet again. She sees rehabilitation medicine as the team whose work is to lift a patient's quality of life and ability back as close to what it was as possible

Giving patients hope

Most people assume that treating pain means medication and nothing else, and are still not clear on what rehabilitation medicine is. In truth its role is to help a patient do again what they once could do but now cannot

Dr. Pingping adds that one of the things most people do not yet appreciate is how much physiotherapy matters, because a patient going through physiotherapy is part of what gives them a better quality of life. Beyond that, a doctor who can give a patient hope of standing and walking again has an enormous effect on that person, and that is another force driving her to get patients back to ordinary life

In caring for neurological conditions such as Parkinson's disease and stroke, rehabilitation is not only treating the physical symptom, or "walking" alone, but has to take a whole-person approach:

1. Look for the hidden problems: beyond the physical symptoms, the medical team has to look at everything else that affects quality of life, such as swallowing, sleep and bowel and bladder function, along with the patient's stress and state of mind
2. Training designed for the individual: because treatment cannot use a ready-made "1 2 3" formula for everyone, the doctor has to design a precise programme. Training a patient with Parkinson's disease, for instance, may use equipment or rhythm-based techniques such as walking to the beat of music, to help walking become smooth and quick again

Dr. Pingping underlines how greatly the nervous system affects life. If one day we were left weak down one side, life would not be the same. But for patients and carers, don't give up hope. When it feels discouraging, remember that "there is a team called rehabilitation medicine" ready to help bring quality of life and ability back to their best. And she would like people in Thailand to start looking after themselves today, because the most important thing is good health. It can start simply, with exercise and with attention to food. Even if the result is not immediate, it is an investment that will certainly make life better in future than doing nothing at all