Neurological Disorders

What is Neurology?

Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effected tissue, such as muscles.

Physicians who specialize in neurology are called neurologists, and are trained to investigate, or diagnose and treat, neurological disorders.

Although many mental illnesses are believed to be neurological disorders affecting the central nervous system, traditionally they are classified separately, and treated by psychiatrists.


Neurological Disorders

There are over 600 known neurological disorders and conditions that affect the human nervous system and for many of them treatment options are extremely limited. In addition to the physical and mental toll these conditions take on patients, their families and caregivers, they also have an enormous economic impact, resulting in hundreds of billions of dollars annually in medical expenses and lost productivity.

Neurological disorders are health conditions involving the nervous system. A neurological disorder is a disease or injury of the central nervous system that causes paralysis of any part of the body. Sometimes physical injury to the brain, spinal cord, or nerves can be the cause of neurological disorders. Sometimes they can result from biochemical causes. Other times, the cause may be unkown and only the effects are seen.

The nervous system is a complex, sophisticated system that regulates and coordinates the body's basic functions and activities. It is made up of two major divisions, including the central nervous system (consisting of the brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system (consisting of all other neural elements).

Neurological disorders include diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system such as, the brain, spinal cord, cranial nerves, peripheral nerves, nerve roots, autonomic nervous system, neuromuscular junction, and muscles. These disorders include epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, cerebrovascular diseases including stroke, migraine and other headache disorders, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, neuroinfections, brain tumours, traumatic disorders of the nervous system such as brain trauma, and neurological disorders as a result of malnutrition.

In addition, there are a number of diseases that attack the nervous system itself. They include infections (bacterial, viral or fungal), cancers (malignant or benign), degenerative conditions (such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease), and disorders of function (e.g. epilepsy, Tourette's syndrome).

Neurological disorders are common and can be life-threatening, like brain tumors and strokes, or less harmful (though potentially debilitating), like tension headaches and sleep disorders.

Neurological Conditions

Human Brain Facts

Neurological Disorders List

Further Information Regarding Neurological Disorders

Hendra Virus Breakthrough
There has been a breakthrough in the fight against the deadly Hendra virus following the development of a treatment which shows great potential to save the lives of people who become infected with the virus.

Making of the Male Brain - Testosterone and Estrogen
The basis for differences between the sexes in such behaviors, they show, may reside in the neurons that are equipped with an enzyme, called aromatase, that converts testosterone into estrogen.

Link Between Psychosis and Creativity
Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear. Sylvia Plath stuck her head in the oven. History teems with examples of great artists acting in very peculiar ways. Were these artists simply mad or brilliant?

Asperger's Syndrome - Facts and Treatment
Asperger syndrome is a form of neurological disorder named after Viennese physician Hans Asperger, who described a pattern of behaviors in a number of young boys who had average intelligence and language capabilities, yet also exhibited autistic-like behaviors and deficiencies in both social and communication skills.

Tourette Syndrome - Facts and Information
Symptoms of Tourette syndrome nearly always appear during childhood, with an average onset between the ages of seven and ten years of age. Tourette syndrome occurs in persons of all ethnic groups, with males being affected approximately three to four times as often as females. An estimated two-hundred thousand Americans experience the most severe form of Tourette syndrome, with as many as one in one-hundred exhibiting milder and less complex symptoms that can include vocal tics and chronic motor or transient tics.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a complex anxiety-based disorder which has two elements to it, obsessions and compulsions. Unfortunately for some, the symptoms experienced do not end there. OCD is sometimes accompanied by depression, eating disorders, substance abuse disorder, a personality disorder, attention deficit disorder or another of the anxiety disorders.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease - Mad Cow Disease
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a rare, rapidly progressive, invariably fatal brain disorder primarily characterized by mental deterioration, although motor problems can be significant in many cases.

Canavan Disease Information
Canavan disease (CD) is a severe progressive inherited (genetic) disorder of the central nervous system (CNS). It is one of the most common cerebral degenerative diseases of infancy, is a gene-linked, neurological birth disorder in which the white matter of the brain degenerates into spongy tissue riddled with microscopic fluid-filled spaces.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - Lou Gehrig's Disease
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), sometimes called Lou Gehrig's disease, is a rapidly progressive, invariably fatal neurological disease that attacks the nerve cells (neurons) responsible for controlling voluntary muscles.

Alexander Disease Information
Alexander disease (ALX) is one of a group of neurological conditions known as the leukodystrophies, disorders that are the result of abnormalities in myelin, the “white matter” that protects nerve fibers in the brain.

Where Does Consciousness Come From
Consciousness arises as an emergent property of the human mind. Yet basic questions about the precise timing, location and dynamics of the neural event(s) allowing conscious access to information are not clearly and unequivocally determined. Some neuroscientists have even argued that consciousness may arise from a single "seat" in the brain, though the prevailing idea attributes a more global network property.

Brain and Loneliness Connection
Social isolation affects how people behave as well as how their brains operate, a study at the University of Chicago shows. The research, presented Sunday at a symposium, "Social Emotion and the Brain," at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is the first to use fMRI scans to study the connections between perceived social isolation (or loneliness) and activity in the brain.

Hydranencephaly Information
Hydranencephaly is a rare condition where the brain's cerebral hemispheres are absent, and are instead replace by sacs which are filled with cerebrospinal fluid. Children born with this condition do not seem to have anything wrong with them at birth, having a common head size. Their ability to swallow, cry, and move their legs and arms may all seem fine.

Brain Asymmetry Research
Left-right asymmetry is present in the brains of most animals and is first evident at the time of early brain development. However, until now, scientists did not know the mechanisms that bring it about. Now, in a study funded primarily by the Wellcome Trust, researchers have shown that a competition between the two sides causes this asymmetry.

Delusions Associated with Consistent Pattern of Brain Injury
An in-depth analysis of patients with certain delusions and brain disorders revealing a consistent pattern of injury to the frontal lobe and right hemisphere of the human brain. The cognitive deficits caused by these injuries to the right hemisphere, leads to the over compensation by the left hemisphere of the brain for the injury, resulting in delusions.

What you Eat Affects your Brain
A "brain healthy" diet means low-fat, low cholesterol choices combined with an abundance of antioxidant foods that are beneficial to the brain. Better nutrition will be good for your heart and your mind.