AUTOIMMUNE MOVEMENT DISORDERS

Abstract

Movement Disorders are commonly considered as incurable, progressive neurodegenerative diseases. However, movement disorders can occasionally develop in patients with autoimmune encephalopathies or in the context of systemic autoimmune diseases. In such patients, the underlying mechanism involves an aberrant immune response to neural self-antigens. The neurological manifestations can be atypical, sometimes multifocal, subacute in onset and may have a fluctuating course. The antibody specificity may predict the movement disorder phenotype, etiology and response to immunotherapy. In this article, we review autoimmune-mediated movement disorders and discuss their phenomenology, diagnosis, and treatment.