Movement Disorders
Movement disorders are disorders that occur with impairment in automatic movements, involuntary excessive movements, or slowness in movements without a sensory defect. It covers a wide group of diseases that occur due to diseases of the centers in the brain that control fine motor skills. Some of these diseases are Ataxia, Dystonia, Essential Tremor, Huntington's Disease, Myoclonus, Parkinson's Disease, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Rett Syndrome, Secondary Parkinsonism, Tardive Dyskinesia, Tourette Syndrome, Wilson's disease.
Convulsions in different parts of the body, involuntary tremors, imbalance, lack of coordination, uncontrollable contortions, repetitive conversations, eye movements, gradually decreasing mental abilities, slowness in speaking, walking and swallowing due to the death of cells in the brain in some types of diseases, irregular breathing, inability to express emotions, decrease in facial expressions, difficulty in swallowing. Due to this, drooling is observed. In some movement disorders, physiological symptoms such as swelling of the abdomen, vomiting of blood, and jaundice may occur, as well as psychological symptoms such as violence and depression.
There may be reasons such as metabolic diseases, neurological diseases, genetic predisposition, and heredity. For example, in order for Wilson's disease, which is a movement disorder disease, to be seen in a person, both the mother and the father must have this disease. Secondary perkinsonism may occur as a result of the side effects of the drugs used or brain degeneration, and Rett Syndrome is a result of mutation in genes.
People with a family history of movement disorder diseases are at genetic risk. However, some movement disorder diseases may develop due to external factors. For example, tardive dyskinesia is a type of muscle disease that can develop as a result of long-term use of antipsychotic or neuroleptic drugs. Complications vary depending on the type of movement disorder.
Movement disorders usually begin gradually. For this reason, since the patient's history and images of involuntary movements may be important for diagnosis, these should be noted and recorded and forwarded to the doctor.
A patient who comes with a complaint of movement disorder The first thing to do with the patient is to determine the affected part or parts by monitoring the patient's history and involuntary movements. Whether the involuntary movements occur in one or several parts of the body, whether they are in close or distant areas, in which parts of the body they occur, the speed of the movements, whether the movements continue at rest or during sleep, and whether they can be suppressed are important in terms of revealing the underlying cause.
Treatment of movement disorders varies depending on the type of underlying movement disorder. While some diseases can be treated by eliminating the factors that cause the disease, some movement disorders can be treated with medication and some diseases can be treated with surgical intervention. Some movement disorder diseases have no cure. For example, while Ataxia can be treated with medication, Dystonia is treated in three steps: medication, Botox injection and surgical intervention. There is no treatment for Huntington's disease, which occurs due to the deterioration of cells in the brain.
Since most movement disorder diseases occur as a result of genetic predisposition, it is not possible to prevent them. Since there are also types that may develop as a result of long-term use of antipsychotic or neuroleptic drugs, these drugs should be used under the supervision of a doctor.
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