Disorders of the Brain

Smooth Brain Lissencephaly, which literally means smooth brain, is a rare brain formation disorder caused by defective neuronal migration during the 12th to 24th weeks of gestation resulting in a lack of development of brain folds (gyri) and grooves (sulci). Affected children display severe psychomotor retardation, failure to thrive, seizures, and muscle spasticity or hypotonia. Other symptoms of the disorder may include unusual facial appearance, difficulty swallowing, and anomalies of the hands, fingers, or toes.

Alzheimer’s Disease Alzheimer’s Disease, is a progressive disease of the brain characterized by confusion, loss of memory, disorientation, restlessness, speech disturbances, inability to carry out normal movements, and hallucinations. It usually starts after age 65, but there is a rare and very aggressive form of the disease, known as early-onset Alzheimer's disease, that can affect people as young as age thirty. The doctors ability to diagnose Alzheimer's disease has improved over the years, but final diagnosis can be confirmed only at autopsy. Linked to acetylcholine deficiencies.

Epilepsy Epilepsy, called seizure disorder. It is a brain disorder that briefly interrupts the normal electrical activity of the brain. It causes seizures, by a variety of symptoms including uncontrolled movements of the body, disorientation or confusion, sudden fear, or loss of consciousness. Epilepsy can also result from a head injury, stroke, brain tumor, lead poisoning, genetic conditions, or severe infections like meningitis or encephalitis.

Stroke Stroke, is damage to the brain from blockage in blood flow and loss of blood from blood vessels in the brain. Without oxygen and nutrients from blood in the circulatory system, sections of brain tissue quickly deteriorate or die, resulting in paralysis of limbs or organs controlled by the affected brain area. Rehabilitation from stroke requires help from neurologists, physical therapists, speech therapists, and other medical persons.

Huntington’s Disease Affecting some 30,000 Americans and placing 200,000 more at risk, Huntington’s disease (HD) is now considered one of the most common hereditary brain disorders. The disease, which killed folk singer Woody Guthrie in 1967, progresses slowly over a 10- to 20-year period and eventually robs the affected individual of the ability to walk, talk, think, and reason. The most recognizable symptoms include involuntary jerking movements of the limbs, torso, and facial muscles. These are often accompanied by mood swings, depression, irritability, slurred speech, and clumsiness. As the disease progresses, common symptoms include difficulty swallowing, unsteady gait, loss of balance, impaired reasoning, and memory problems.

Hydrocephalus Also known as "water on the brain," is a medical condition in which there is an abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the ventricles, or cavities, of the brain. This may cause increased intracranial pressure inside the skull and progressive enlargement of the head, convulsion, tunnel vision, and mental disability. Hydrocephalus can also cause death. Although it does occur in older adults, it is more common in infants.

Multiple Sclerosis The most common central nervous system disease of young adults after epilepsy, multiple sclerosis (MS) is a lifelong ailment of unknown origin that affects more than 400,000 Americans. Although a cause has yet to be found, MS is thought to be an autoimmune disease in which the body’s natural defenses act against the myelin and nerve fibers in the central nervous system as though they were foreign tissue. Some nerve fibers are actually cut in association with the loss of myelin. In MS, when brain tissue is destroyed, it is either repaired or replaced by scars of hardened sclerotic patches of tissue. Areas of disease activity are called lesions or plaques and appear in multiple places within the central nervous system. These effects are comparable to the loss of insulating material around an electrical wire, or cutting of the wire itself, which interferes with the transmission of signals.

Parkinson’s Disease This neurologic disorder afflicts 1 million individuals in the United States, most of whom are older than 50. Parkinson’s disease is characterized by symptoms of slowness of movement, muscular rigidity, tremor, and postural instability. The discovery in the late 1950s that the level of dopamine was decreased in the brains of Parkinson’s patients was followed in the 1960s by the successful treatment of this disorder by administration of the drug levodopa, which is converted to dopamine in the brain.

Tourette Syndrome One of the most common and least understood neurobiological disorders, Tourette syndrome (TS) is an inherited disorder that affects about 1 in 200 Americans. Males are affected three to four times as often as females. Symptoms usually appear between the ages of 4 and 8, but in rare cases may emerge in the late teenage years. The symptoms include motor and vocal tics — repetitive, involuntary movements or utterances that are rapid and sudden and persist for more than one year. The types of tics may change frequently and increase or decrease in severity over time. In roughly one-half of individuals, this disorder lasts a lifetime, but the remaining patients may experience a remission or decrease in symptoms as they get older.