Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Review
Intermittent head drops: the differential spectrum
  1. Elena Antelmi1,2,
  2. Giuseppe Plazzi1,3,
  3. Roberto Erro2,
  4. Paolo Tinuper1,3,
  5. Bettina Balint2,
  6. Rocco Liguori1,3,
  7. Kailash P Bhatia2
  1. 1Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
  2. 2Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, University College London (UCL) Institute of Neurology, London, UK
  3. 3IRCCS Institute of Neurological Sciences, Bologna, Italy
  1. Correspondence to Dr Elena Antelmi, Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, University College London (UCL) Institute of Neurology, 33 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK; elenaantelmi{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Intermittent Head Drops are episodic head flexion movements that can occur in a number of conditions. Typically, the term has mainly been related to epileptic episodes, but the spectrum of clinical conditions associated with this feature is wide-ranging even if never discussed in detail. By searching the electronic database, we may find that apart from the epileptic conditions, Intermittent Head Drops have been in fact reported in the setting of movement disorders, sleep disorders and even internal medicine disorders, such as Sandifer syndrome. We render an in-depth description of this characteristic phenomenon in different diseases, describing the clinical clues and neurophysiological patterns that may help the clinician to distinguish between the different settings of occurrence.

  • MOVEMENT DISORDERS
  • SLEEP

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.