Movement Disorders Overview

Movement disorders refer to a group of neurological conditions that cause either increased movements or reduced/slow movements. These movements may be voluntary or involuntary. Common types of movement disorders include:

• Ataxia: Affects coordinated movement, causing uncoordinated or clumsy balance, speech, or limb movements.
• Cervical dystonia: Involuntary neck muscle contractions, causing the head to pull or tilt.
• Chorea: Characterized by rapid, irregular, involuntary movements involving face, mouth, trunk, and limbs.
• Dystonia: Sustained involuntary muscle contractions with twisting, repetitive movements.
• Functional movement disorder: Resembles other movement disorders but isn't due to neurological disease and is treatable.
• Huntington's disease: Inherited, progressive disease with uncontrolled movements, cognitive problems, and psychiatric conditions.
• Multiple system atrophy: Rare neurological disorder affecting multiple brain systems, causing movement disorders, low blood pressure, bladder impairment, and acting out dreams.
• Myoclonus: Causes quick jerks of a muscle.
• Parkinson's disease: Slowly progressive disease with tremor, muscle stiffness, slow movement, and imbalance.
• Parkinsonism: General term for slowness of movement with stiffness, tremor, or loss of balance.
• Progressive supranuclear palsy: Rare disorder affecting walking, balance, and eye movements.
• Restless legs syndrome: Causes unpleasant feelings in the legs while relaxing or lying down, relieved by movement.
• Tardive dyskinesia: Caused by long-term use of certain drugs, resulting in repetitive involuntary movements.
• Tourette syndrome: Neurological condition with repetitive movements and vocal sounds.
• Tremor: Causes rhythmic shaking of body parts like hands or head. Most common type is essential tremor.
• Wilson's disease: Rare inherited disorder causing excessive copper buildup, leading to neurological problems like dystonia, tremor, parkinsonism, or ataxia.