Movement disorders
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Follow the links below to find trusted information about movement disorders.
Last reviewed: May 2018
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Neurological Rehabilitation and Movement Disorders | myVMC
Botulinum toxin is a neurotoxin used to treat movement disorders and symptoms caused by neurological conditions.
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Cervical dystonia (neck spasms movement disorder) | myVMC
Cervical dystonia or neck dystonia is a movement disorder of the neck muscles. It causes spasms, tremors and pain in the neck, and abnormal head posture.
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Other Movement Disorders | Parkinson's Australia
There are a number of other movement disorders that are similar to Parkinson’s but have some unique features that distinguish them from Parkinson’s, these are sometimes referred to as Parkinson's-plus syndromes.
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Post-stroke upper limb spasticity information | myVMC
Upper limb spasticity after a stroke is a movement disorder characterised by rigidity and spasms of the arm muscles. This impedes physical movements.
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Spasmodic dysphonia (laryngeal dystonia) information | myVMC
Spasmodic dysphonia, also called laryngeal dystonia, is a rare movement disorder that causes the vocal cords to involuntarily spasm. It affects speech.
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Cerebral palsy causes and treatment information | myVMC
Cerebral palsy is a group of movement disorders caused by brain damage at birth. It affects motor skills and muscle tone.
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Dystonia | myVMC
Dystonia is a movement disorder characterised by involuntary, repetitive, sustained and directional movements and postures. It is a unique neurological condition, as it can be either an inherited disorder or acquired as a result of conditions such as stroke.
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Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy | Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation
People with dyskinetic forms of cerebral palsy have variable movement that is involuntary (outside of their control). These involuntary movements are especially noticeable when a person attempts to move. Dyskinetic...
Read more on Cerebral Palsy Alliance website
Ataxic Cerebral Palsy | Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation
Ataxia is the least common form of cerebral palsy. Ataxia means 'withoutorder' or 'incoordination'. Ataxic movements are characterised by clumsiness, imprecision, or instability. Movements are not smooth and may appear...
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Moblility and Parkinson's | Parkinson's Australia
Parkinson’s was originally classified as a movement disorder as all aspects of movement and mobility may be affected.
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Top results
Interventions for eye movement disorders in people with stroke | Cochrane
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Central action beta-blockers versus placebo for neuroleptic-induced acute akathisia | Cochrane
Akathisia is recognised as one of the most common and distressing of the early-onset adverse effects of neuroleptic drugs. This movement disorder is characterised by a subjective report of inner restlessness, mental unease or dysphoria, which can be intense.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Sertindole for schizophrenia | Cochrane
This review includes three studies with a total of 1104 participants. We excluded two large important studies because they did not report any usable data. The three that were included suggested that sertindole (20 mg/day) was more antipsychotic than placebo, as acceptable as placebo (in terms of various adverse events including movement disorders and somnolence) and better tolerated than haloperidol. Sertindole was associated with fewer movement disorders than haloperidol, but was shown to cause more weight gain and the possible side effect of male sexual dysfunction. Cardiac problems (QTc intervals of at least 500 msec) were evident even in the randomised trials. Sertindole used at 16 mg/day (reported to be the most optimal dose by one study) caused more rhinitis than haloperidol.
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Thiamine for prevention and treatment of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome in people who abuse alcohol | Cochrane
Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (WKS) is a disorder of the brain caused by a deficiency of vitamin B1 (thiamine). It is characterised by an acute onset of some or all of an eye movement disorder, lack of voluntary coordination of muscle movement (ataxia) and confusion. Patients may die in the acute phase, and many survivors go on to develop permanent memory impairment. Alcohol abuse is an important cause of WKS, although it is not the only consideration. Heavy drinking may lead to particular problems with uptake of thiamine from the diet.
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Non-neuroleptic catecholaminergic drugs for neuroleptic-induced tardive dyskinesia | Cochrane
Tardive dyskinesia is a disfiguring and disabling movement disorder which is often caused by drugs used to treat schizophrenia. Several of the Cochrane reviews have summarised the effects of the many treatments used to manage these involuntary movements and this one summarises the trials-based evidence of a group of compounds which are known to influence a specific set of brain chemicals called the catecholaminergic system.
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Treatment for speech disorder in Friedreich ataxia and other hereditary ataxia syndromes (inherited disorders of movement co-ordination) | Cochrane
Treatment for speech disorder in Friedreich ataxia and other hereditary ataxia syndromes (inherited disorders of movement co-ordination)
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Haloperidol versus first-generation low-potency antipsychotic drugs for schizophrenia | Cochrane
Drugs called antipsychotics are the main treatment for schizophrenia.Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness where sufferers experience both positive symptoms of delusions and hallucinations and negative symptoms such as apathy, lack of drive, disorganisation of behaviour and thought.This review examined whether a high-potency antipsychotic, haloperidol is more effective than low-potency antipsychotics. The classification into high-potency and low-potency medication means that for low-potency antipsychotic drugs, higher doses are necessary to obtain the same effect and response in patients. Haloperidol is the most frequently used antipsychotic drug in many countries and, along with other high-potency antipsychotics is often considered more effective than low-potency antipsychotics. Typical examples of low-potency antipsychotic drugs are chlorpromazine, chlorprothixene, thioridazine or levomepromazine. High- and low-potency antipsychotics also seem to differ in their side-effects. Low-potency drugs cause sedation and poor muscle strength, whereas high-potency drugs produce side-effects such as movement disorders (the inability to sit still, uncontrollable shaking and difficulty in walking). The review is based on results of a search run in 2010 and includes 17 studies with a total of 877 participants comparing haloperidol with low-potency antipsychotic drugs.The results do not clearly show a superiority of haloperidol compared with low-potency antipsychotics. However, more participants from the low-potency drug group experienced weight gain and sedation.The experience of at least one movement disorder was significantly higher with haloperidol. The number as well as the quality of studies is low, for the main outcomes of interest the authors rated quality of evidence for as moderate quality for two of them, two as low quality and one as very low quality. So the evidence is not strong and more newer studies would be needed in order to draw a conclusion about whether or not haloperidol is superior to low-potency antipsychotics. For people with schizophrenia it is important to know that there is moderate quality evidence that haloperidol and low-potency antipsychotics are approximately equal in their effectiveness, but there is lower quality evidence that they clearly differ in side-effects (such as weight gain and movement disorders).
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Trifluoperazine versus low-potency first-generation drugs for schizophrenia | Cochrane
Antipsychotic drugs are the main treatment for schizophrenia, they help people cope with symptoms such as hearing voices, seeing things and having strange beliefs. Guidelines state that there is no difference in effectiveness between antipsychotics, but low-potency antipsychotic drugs are often seen as less effective than high-potency drugs, and they also seem to differ in side-effects. The classification into high-potency and low-potency medication means that low-potency antipsychotic drugs need higher doses for treating the symptoms of schizophrenia. Side-effects that are common to most high-potency antipsychotic drugs include the movement disorders such as uncontrollable movements of the face, arms, or legs; tremors; problems with balance or walking; restlessness; seizures; joint pain whereas low-potency drugs are more likely to cause sedation, fever and loss of muscle strength. Research has not evaluated and compared high-potency drugs with low-potency antipsychotic drugs. The aim of the review was therefore to compare trifluoperazine (a high-potency antipsychotic) with low-potency antipsychotics for people with schizophrenia. Examples of low-potency drugs are chlorpromazine, chlorprothixene, thioridazine and levomepromazine.The review is based on a search carried out in 2010 and included seven studies with a total of 422 people.It compared trifluoperazine with low-potency antipsychotic drugs. Overall, information was poorly reported and the quality of the studies was low; authors rated the quality of evidence for the main outcomes of interested as being either moderate, low or very low quality.Results do not show a superiority of trifluoperazine compared with low-potency antipsychotics.However, at least one movement disorder (muscle stiffness) was significantly more with trifluoperazine. For people with schizophrenia it is important to know that trifluoperazine and low-potency antipsychotics are approximately equal for dealing with symptoms such as hearing voices or seeing things.They differ slightly in their side-effects, with trifluoperazine leading to at least one movement disorder (muscle stiffness). However, no clear superiority of trifluoperazine versus low-potency antipsychotics was found.Due to the limited number of studies, participants and low quality of information, these results have to be interpreted with caution.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
The use of different treatment for incoordination of limb movement (ataxia) or tremor in people with multiple sclerosis | Cochrane
The use of different treatment for incoordination of limb movement (ataxia) or tremor in people with multiple sclerosis
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Treadmill training for people with Parkinson's disease | Cochrane
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
