The main neurological syndromes

Before describing neurological syndromes , it should be clarified what this term means and how the concepts of “syndrome” and “disease” differ. Neurological diseases in their entirety are accompanied by a host of different syndromes: from subtle to the most severe and even fatal. The main task of diagnosis is to correctly identify them and, putting them in a single picture, make the correct clinical diagnosis. 

What is what

In fact, a syndrome is a combination of similar symptoms, created to optimize diagnosis. For example, giddiness and shakiness of gait enter the vestibular syndrome. This means that the diagnosis, including an indication of this syndrome, suggests the presence of the listed symptoms in the patient. Sometimes you can find another name – “symptom coplex”. But it is one and the same.

Disease is a broader and more comprehensive concept. The disease can manifest itself in several syndromes. Moreover, not only neurological syndromes , but any other ones fall under this rule . For example, a meningococcal infection can simultaneously cause a systemic inflammatory response syndrome (sepsis), meningeal, general infection, and catarrhal syndromes. That is, if a syndrome is a collection of symptoms, then a disease is a collection of syndromes. 

Each applied area of ​​medicine can be characterized from the standpoint of syndromology, or, in other words, the most relevant syndromes in a particular area. Neurology is no exception. Moreover, neurologists work with a huge variety of neurological syndromes and their combination.

The main neurological syndromes

Neurological syndromology due to its heterogeneity cannot be divided into several large groups. It makes sense to give a general description of the most relevant sets of symptoms that a person may encounter.

1. Pain is the most common. Most diseases are accompanied by pain. Even the word “sick” has a root associated with pain, and this is natural. Headache, pain in the spine, along the nerves, notorious trigeminal neuralgia – it all falls under the definition of pain.

Pain of a neurogenic nature, among other things, is often accompanied by other manifestations. For example, lacrimation is almost always observed at the height of an attack of facial neuralgia.

2. Motor neurological syndromes include paralysis and paresis (muscle weakness). Traditionally, paralysis is associated with strokes. But in fact, they arise as a result of many diseases – from polio to hysterical disorder.   

3. The vestibular (cerebellar) syndrome can be a consequence of both a malfunction of the brain and pathology of the inner ear. As a rule, such symptoms are pronounced and it is difficult to confuse them with anything else. A feeling of dizziness, an unsteady gait and rhythmic vibrations of the eyeballs (what neurologists call spontaneous nystagmus) are clear signs of this syndrome.

4. An increase in intracranial pressure in neurological disorders is also observed quite often. A significant percentage of patients complaining of headaches suffer from such a violation.

5. Paroxysmal neurological syndromes characterize any nervous disease that manifests itself paroxysmally.

6. Neurological autonomic syndromes are directly related to the work of the adrenal glands. Often they, like epilepsy, also occur in the form of seizures, but are manifested by sharp changes in blood pressure. By the way, vegetovascular dystonia , so widespread now, belongs to this particular group.