Therapy options in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a chronic progressive disease which affects predominantly the motor nervous system and leads to muscle atrophies and paralysis. The development of causal therapy options is difficult since the etiology of ALS is largely unknown. Based on new pathogenetic insights several potentially effective substances have been discovered recently which caused a slowdown of the disease in animal experiments. However, most of them showed disappointing results in placebo controlled studies in humans. The symptomatic therapy of ALS includes the treatment of frequent symptoms like hypoventilation, malnutrition, or pseudohypersalivation. This article describes current views of causal and symptomatic therapy options.