What are Movement Disorders?
These can be described as problems moving too much (involuntary movements) or too little (slowness, stiffness like in Parkinson’s disease). Involuntary movements include:
- Tremor
- Tics (Tourette’s syndrome)
- Chorea (as in Huntington’s disease)
- Athetosis (often a form of cerebral palsy)
- Dystonia
- Myoclonus
- Stereotypies (often associated with autism)
- Restless legs syndrome
Like Parkinson’s disease, there are related conditions that can cause the same reduction in movements (parkinsonism), such as vascular parkinsonism, multiple system atrophy and others. Movement disorders are due to disturbances of deep brain structures, called the basal ganglia. Accurate diagnosis by an experienced specialist is critical for movement disorders and most can be successfully treated.
What are Cognitive Disorders?
These represent problems with cognitive skills such as memory and language, generally described as mild cognitive impairment or dementia. These become particularly common as people age. Examples include Alzheimer’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, vascular dementia and frontotemporal dementia. It is critical to have accurate diagnosis to be sure no readily treatable cause is missed and to ensure proper treatment.
What are Behavioral Disorders?
Movement and cognitive disorders are commonly accompanied by problems with personality, attention, mood and anxiety. KSN provides careful assessment, treatment and care of the full neuropsychiatric spectrum of these disorders. Examples of such conditions include ADHD, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression and psychosis (hallucinations, paranoia).
