Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Movement Disorders
Movement disorders are neurologic conditions that cause problems with movement, such as:
- Increased movement that can be voluntary (intentional) or involuntary (unintended)
- Decreased or slow voluntary movement
There are many different movement disorders. Some of the more common types include:
- Ataxia, the loss of muscle coordination
- Dystonia, in which involuntary contractions of your muscles cause twisting and repetitive movements. The movements can be painful.
- Huntington's disease, an inherited disease that causes nerve cells in certain parts of the brain to waste away. This includes the nerve cells that help to control voluntary movement.
- Parkinson's disease, which is a disorder that slowly gets worse over time. It causes tremors, slowness of movement, and trouble walking.
- Tourette syndrome, a condition that causes people to make sudden twitches, movements, or sounds (tics)
- Tremor and essential tremor, which cause involuntary trembling or shaking movements. The movements may be in one or more parts of your body.
Causes of movement disorders include:
- Genetics
- Infections
- Medicines
- Damage to the brain, spinal cord, or peripheral nerves
- Metabolic disorders
- Stroke and vascular diseases
- Toxins
Treatment varies by disorder. Medicines can cure some disorders. Others get better when an underlying disease is treated. Often, however, there is no cure. In that case, the goal of treatment is to improve symptoms and relieve pain.
It sits within Bones, Joints and Muscles and Brain and Nerves.
The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Movement Disorders
7,300 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- The Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Clinical Trial PlatformAdam Boxer
- MIBG in Aging and Neurologic DisordersMayo Clinic
- Circadian Adaptive DBS in Essential TremorUniversity of Florida
- A Study of SGT-212 Gene Therapy in Friedreich's AtaxiaSolid Biosciences Inc.
- ARTFL LEFFTDS Longitudinal Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (ALLFTD)Mayo Clinic
- Music Therapy in Parkinson's DiseaseSiegward -M. Elsas
Research already completed
- Endurance Exercise & Virtual Reality for Optimizing Cortical Excitability and Neuroplasticity in PDThe University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
- Adapted Physical Activity and Tango-Based Therapy for Parkinson's Disease: A Pilot StudyUniversity of Foggia
- Parkinson Disease and DBS: Cognitive Effects in GBA Mutation CarriersRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Diagnosis and Tests
- Electromyography (EMG) and Nerve Conduction StudiesNational Library of Medicine
Treatments and Therapies
- Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS)National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Related Issues
- Dressing with Ease, Style, and ComfortALS Association
Genetics
- Action myoclonus-renal failure syndrome: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
- ADCY5-related dyskinesia: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
- Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
- Alpers-Huttenlocher syndrome: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
- Angelman syndrome: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
- Ataxia with vitamin E deficiency: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
- Boucher-Neuhäuser syndrome: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
- Christianson syndrome: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
- CLCN2-related leukoencephalopathy: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
- Congenital mirror movement disorder: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
- Dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophy: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
- Essential tremor: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
- Familial paroxysmal nonkinesigenic dyskinesia: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
- Fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
- Hypermanganesemia with dystonia: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
Statistics and Research
- Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) for the Treatment of Parkinson's Disease and Other Movement DisordersNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: AtaxiaNational Institutes of Health
- ClinicalTrials.gov: ChoreaNational Institutes of Health
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Movement DisordersNational Institutes of Health
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Tardive DyskinesiaNational Institutes of Health
- ClinicalTrials.gov: TorticollisNational Institutes of Health
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Movement Disorders. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Movement Disorders, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.