Alzheimer''s Disease Information Page
... Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease characterized in the brain by abnormal clumps (amyloid plaques) and tangled bundles of fibers (neurofibrillary tangles) compose...

Asperger Syndrome Information Page
... Asperger syndrome (AS) is a developmental disorder.  It is an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), one of a distinct group of neurological conditions characterized by a greater or lesser degree of imp...

Autism Information Page
... Autism (sometimes called “classical autism”) is the most common condition in a group of developmental disorders known as the autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).   Other ASDs includ...

Batten Disease Information Page
... Batten disease is a fatal, inherited disorder of the nervous system that begins in childhood. In some cases, the early signs are subtle, taking the form of personality and behavior changes, slow learn...

Traumatic Brain Injury Information Page
... Traumatic brain injury (TBI) occurs when a sudden physical assault on the head causes damage to the brain. The damage can be focal, confined to one area of the brain, or diffuse, involving more than o...

Cerebral Palsy Information Page
... Cerebral palsy is an umbrella-like term used to describe a group of chronic disorders impairing control of movement that appear in the first few years of life and generally do not worsen over time. Th...

Multi-Infarct Dementia Information Page
... Multi-infarct dementia (MID), a common cause of dementia in the elderly, occurs when blood clots block small blood vessels in the brain and destroy brain tissue. Probable risk factors are high blood p...

Dystonias Information Page
... The dystonias are movement disorders in which sustained muscle contractions cause twisting and repetitive movements or abnormal postures. The movements, which are involuntary and sometimes painful, ma...

Epilepsy Information Page
... Epilepsy is a brain disorder in which clusters of nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain sometimes signal abnormally. In epilepsy, the normal pattern of neuronal activity becomes disturbed, causing str...

Learning Disabilities Information Page
... Learning disabilities are disorders that affect the ability to understand or use spoken or written language, do mathematical calculations, coordinate movements, or direct attention. Although learning ...

Multiple Sclerosis Information Page
... Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease diagnosed primarily in adults between the ages of 20 and 50. It is caused by the inflammation and scarring (sclerosis) of the myelin sheath (a fatty coveri...

Narcolepsy Information Page
... Narcolepsy is a disabling neurological disorder of sleep regulation that affects the control of sleep and wakefulness. It may be described as an intrusion of the dreaming state of sleep (called REM or...

Pervasive Developmental Disorders Information Page
... The diagnostic category of pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) refers to a group of disorders characterized by delays in the development of socialization and communication skills. Parents may note...

Pick''s Disease Information Page
... Pick's disease is a form of dementia characterized by a slowly progressive deterioration of social skills and changes in personality, along with impairment of intellect, memory, and language. Alth...

Spinal Cord Injury Information Page
... Spinal cord injury (SCI) occurs when a traumatic event results in damage to cells within the spinal cord or severs the nerve tracts that relay signals up and down the spinal cord. The most common type...

Tuberous Sclerosis Information Page
... Tuberous sclerosis is a rare genetic, neurological disorder primarily characterized by seizures, mental retardation, and skin and eye lesions. In some cases, neurobehavioral problems may also occur. I...

Williams Syndrome Information Page
... Williams syndrome is a rare, congenital (present at birth) disorder characterized by physical and developmental problems including an impulsive and outgoing (excessively social) personality, limited s...

American Sign Language
... American Sign Language (ASL) is a complete, complex language that employs signs made with the hands and other movements, including facial expressions and postures of the body. It is the first language...

Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
... Hearing is a series of events in which the ear converts sound waves into electrical signals that are sent to the brain and interpreted as sound. The ear has three main parts: the outer, middle, and in...

Presbycusis
... Presbycusis is the loss of hearing that gradually occurs in most individuals as they grow older. Hearing loss is a common disorder associated with aging. About 30-35 percent of adults between the ages...

Otosclerosis
... Otosclerosis is the abnormal growth of bone of the middle ear. This bone prevents structures within the ear from working properly and causes hearing loss. For some people with otosclerosis, the hearin...

Usher Syndrome
... Usher syndrome is the most common condition that involves both hearing and vision problems. A syndrome is a disease or disorder that has more than one feature or symptom. The major symptoms of Usher s...

Waardenburg Syndrome
... Waardenburg syndrome (WS) is an inherited disorder often characterized by varying degrees of hearing loss and changes in skin and hair pigmentation. The syndrome got its name from a Dutch eye doctor n...

Captions for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Viewers
... Captions are words displayed on a television screen that describe the audio or sound portion of a program. Captions allow viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing to follow the dialogue and the action ...

Cochlear Implants
... A cochlear implant is a small, complex electronic device that can help to provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The implant is surgically placed unde...

Ten Ways To Recognize Hearing Loss
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Aphasia
... Anyone can acquire aphasia, but most people who have aphasia are in their middle to late years. Men and women are equally affected. It is estimated that approximately 80,000 individuals acquire aphasi...

Autism and Communication
... The brain disorder autism begins in early childhood and persists throughout adulthood affecting three crucial areas of development: verbal and nonverbal communication, social interaction, and creative...

Landau-Kleffner Syndrome
... Landau-Kleffner syndrome (LKS) is a childhood disorder. A major feature of LKS is the gradual or sudden loss of the ability to understand and use spoken language. All children with LKS have abnormal e...

Stuttering
... Speech is normally produced through a series of precisely coordinated muscle movements involving respiration (the breathing mechanism), phonation (the voicing mechanism) and articulation (throat, pala...

Velocardiofacial Syndrome
... Velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS) is a disorder that has been associated with over thirty different features. (A disease or disorder that has more than one identifying feature or symptom is a syndrome....

Vocal Cord Paralysis
... Vocal cord paralysis is a voice disorder that occurs when one or both of the vocal cords (or vocal folds) do not open or close properly. Vocal cord paralysis is a common disorder, and symptoms can ran...

Tuberous Sclerosis Fact Sheet
... Tuberous sclerosis-also called tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC)1 - is a rare, multi-system genetic disease that causes benign tumors to grow in the brain and on other vital organs such as the kidneys,...

Seizures and Epilepsy: Hope Through Research
... Few experiences match the drama of a convulsive seizure. A person having a severe seizure may cry out, fall to the floor unconscious, twitch or move uncontrollably, drool, or even lose bladder control...

Medications
... This booklet is designed to help mental health patients and their families understand how and why medications can be used as part of the treatment of mental health problems. It is important for you to...

Women Hold Up Half the Sky
... Women and Mental Health Research Mental illnesses affect women and men differently—some disorders are more common in women, and some express themselves with different symptoms. Scientists are only n...

Huntington''s Disease: Hope Through Research
... In 1872, the American physician George Huntington wrote about an illness that he called "an heirloom from generations away back in the dim past." He was not the first to describe the disorder, which h...

Batten Disease Fact Sheet
... Batten disease is a fatal, inherited disorder of the nervous system that begins in childhood. Early symptoms of this disorder usually appear between the ages of 5 and 10, when parents or physicians ma...

Diabetes Overview
... Almost everyone knows someone who has diabetes. An estimated 18.2 million people in the United States--6.3 percent of the population--have diabetes, a serious, lifelong condition. Of those, 13 million...

Depression
... In any given 1-year period, 9.5 percent of the population, or about 18.8 million American adults, suffer from a depressive illness5 The economic cost for this disorder is high, but the cost in human s...

Depression: What Every Woman Should Know
... Life is full of emotional ups and downs. But when the "down" times are long lasting or interfere with your ability to function, you may be suffering from a common, serious illness—depression. Clinic...

Let''s Talk About Depression
... Sure, everybody feels sad or blue now and then. But if you're sad most of the time, and it's giving you problems with your grades or attendance at school your relationships with your family an...

Cerebral Palsy: Hope Through Research
... In the 1860s, an English surgeon named William Little wrote the first medical descriptions of a puzzling disorder that struck children in the first years of life, causing stiff, spastic muscles in the...

Sleep Disorders
... Sleep disturbances occur in about 12% to 25% of the general population [1] and are often associated with situational stress, illness, aging, and drug treatment.[2,3] It is estimated that 45% of people...

Attention Disorder: Overcoming the Deficit Abuse of Attention Deficit Drug Can Be Deadly
... by Dixie Farley "I really see a difference in my grades. Without it, I don't think about things. I can't pay attention." --Christy Rade, 16, Des Moines, Iowa, commenting in the Aug. ...

Epilepsy: Taming the Seizures, Dispelling the Myths
... by Audrey T. Hingley George Thomas was 21 years old when his life changed: As he stood in his girlfriend's yard, he was hit by a car. After spending a week in the hospital, he was released. But ov...

Dealing with the Depths of Depression
... by Liora Nordenberg "I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would be not one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever...

Depression
... This patient summary on depression is adapted from a summary written for health professionals by cancer experts. This and other credible information about cancer treatment, screening, prevention, supp...