#1177
Vera James
Guest

Eileen,

As of now they still don’t understand the cause of MSA. From what I have seen on polls that have been taken with patients on the different forums like the Yahoo group. Not all patients seem to have the same thing in common regarding certain occupations, childhood illness or head traumas etc. So as it seems the cause maybe more then just one thing or is different depending on the patient.

MSA is still a rather young illness as only being named Shy-drager in 1960 by Dr’s Shy & Drager. In 1987 there were only 4 doctors that seemed to be interested in MSA, as of 2011 there are now over 198 doctors that are.

Before 1987 there had only been 5 articles published on MSA, between 1987 and 2011 there has been over 3127 articles published on MSA. So as it seems it is not widely recognized, it is becoming more and more.

When my husband was alive and living with MSA in 1998 I can only think of one trial that was going on for MSA. In the last year or so I have seen 3 just in medications and more and more funds are going towards MSA research.

MSA has kept it’s head in the sand, but hopefully it will give more of a view of what it is.

Vera