Neurological Disease

Neurological Disease 

any disorder of the central nervous system.

A neurological disease can involve the loss of some function; for example, some neurological diseases are accompanied by paralysis (loss of the motor function) or by the loss of sensitivity to pain, temperature, or other stimuli. Irritative stimuli, such as convulsion or pain, can arise. Mental disorders can predominate when a neurological disease disturbs the important integrative function of the nervous system. In addition to the primary cause, hereditary peculiarities of the affected organism play an important role in determining the body’s reactions during the pathogenesis of neurological disease.

Structural changes in the central or peripheral nervous system result in organic neurological diseases. These are distinguished from the functional neurological diseases, such as the neuropsychic diseases (neuroses). Several groups of organic neurological diseases are classified according to their etiology. These include such vascular diseases as hypertension and atherosclerosis of the cerebral blood vessels; such infectious diseases as meningitides, encephalitides, and poliomyelitis; poisonings, as in alcoholism; tumors of the nervous system; and traumas. Hereditary diseases of the nervous system constitute a separate category, for example, myopathies and myotonias. Clinical neurology (neuropathology in the USSR) is the study of neurological disease.

V. A. KARLOV