Brief overview
- Symptoms: Flinging, large movements of the extremities, starting from the sections close to the body such as the upper arms and thighs. Cannot be controlled voluntarily, increased with external stimuli or excitement, exposure during sleep or anesthesia, facial grimacing.
- Causes: Damage to certain areas of the diencephalon as a result of injury, space-occupying lesions, inflammation, infection (such as toxoplasmosis in AIDS).
- Diagnosis: On the basis of the typical movement pattern, neurological examination, imaging procedures (CT, MRI), examination of the cerebrospinal fluid (lumbar puncture), possibly electroencephalography (EEG)
- Treatment: drugs to suppress ballistic attacks, neuroleptics, anticonvulsants, Parkinson’s drugs, surgery if necessary
- Course and prognosis: Sometimes spontaneous regression within two months, more often permanent symptoms.
- Prevention:No specific measure for prevention known.
What is ballismus?
The word ballismus comes from the Greek and means “to throw” or “to hurl”.
Ballism belongs to the so-called hyperkinetic movement disorders. Hyperkinetic means: with “excessive energy”.
Often the ballism occurs unilaterally. In this case, one speaks of hemiballism. Similar excessive movements occur in chorea or also in athetosis. In some cases, ballism is also understood as a form of chorea. This refers to rapid and uncontrollable movements of the face and the parts of the arms and legs far from the trunk.
What are typical symptoms of ballismus?
Typical symptoms of ballismus are the skidding, sudden movements of the affected person. These sometimes occur bilaterally, but more often they occur hemifacially. They are large, sweeping, expansive movements. The sufferer is unable to control them. Doctors also refer to this movement pattern as ballistic movements.
This movement disorder is particularly pronounced in the sections of the arms and legs close to the trunk, i.e. the upper arms and thighs. During the ballistic attacks, which usually occur in episodes, there is a high risk of injury for the affected person, as the movements are uncontrolled.
