encephalopathy

Other forms: encephalopathies

Definitions of encephalopathy

1. noun

   any disorder or disease of the brain
   synonyms: brain disease, brain disorder

   types:

   epilepsy

   a disorder of the central nervous system characterized by loss of consciousness and convulsions

   apraxia

   inability to make purposeful movements

   Parkinson's, Parkinson's disease, Parkinson's syndrome, Parkinsonism, paralysis agitans, shaking palsy

   a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system characterized by tremor and impaired muscular coordination

   cerebral palsy, spastic paralysis

   a loss or deficiency of motor control with involuntary spasms caused by permanent brain damage present at birth

   agraphia, anorthography, logagraphia

   a loss of the ability to write or to express thoughts in writing because of a brain lesion

   acataphasia

   a disorder in which a lesion to the central nervous system leaves you unable to formulate a statement or to express yourself in an organized manner

   aphasia

   inability to use or understand language (spoken or written) because of a brain lesion

   agnosia

   inability to recognize objects by use of the senses

   CJD, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Jakob-Creutzfeldt disease

   rare (usually fatal) brain disease (usually in middle age) caused by an unidentified slow virus; characterized by progressive dementia and gradual loss of muscle control

   Reye's syndrome

   acquired encephalopathy following acute viral infections (especially influenza or chicken pox) in young children; characterized by fever, vomiting, disorientation, coma, and fatty infiltration of the liver

   Wernicke's encephalopathy

   inflammatory degenerative disease of the brain caused by thiamine deficiency that is usually associated with alcoholism

   astereognosis, tactile agnosia

   a loss of the ability to recognize objects by handling them

   akinetic epilepsy

   epilepsy characterized by akinesia

   cortical epilepsy, focal epilepsy

   epilepsy in which the attacks begins with an isolated disturbance of cerebral function (as a twitching of a limb or an illusory sensation or a mental disturbance)

   epilepsia major, generalized epilepsy, grand mal, grand mal epilepsy

   epilepsy in which the attacks involve loss of consciousness and tonic spasms of the musculature followed by generalized jerking

   Lafora's disease, myoclonus epilepsy

   epilepsy characterized by clonus of muscle groups and progressive mental deterioration and genetic origin

   epilepsia minor, petit mal, petit mal epilepsy

   epilepsy characterized by paroxysmal attacks of brief clouding of consciousness (and possibly other abnormalities)

   posttraumatic epilepsy, traumatic epilepsy

   a convulsive epileptic state caused by a head injury

   procursive epilepsy

   epilepsy in which a seizure is induced by whirling or running

   psychomotor epilepsy, temporal lobe epilepsy

   epilepsy characterized clinically by impairment of consciousness and amnesia for the episode; often involves purposeful movements of the arms and legs and sometimes hallucinations

   reflex epilepsy

   a form of epilepsy in which attacks are induced by peripheral stimulation

   status epilepticus

   a condition in which there are continuing attacks of epilepsy without intervals of consciousness; can lead to brain damage and death

   tonic epilepsy

   epilepsy in which the body is rigid during the seizure

   acoustic aphasia, auditory aphasia, word deafness

   an impairment in understanding spoken language that is not attributable to hearing loss

   associative aphasia, conduction aphasia

   aphasia in which the lesion is assumed to be in the association tracts connecting the various language centers in the brain; patient's have difficulty repeating a sentence just heard

   global aphasia, total aphasia

   loss of all ability to communicate

   Broca's aphasia, ataxic aphasia, expressive aphasia, motor aphasia, nonfluent aphasia

   aphasia in which expression by speech or writing is severely impaired

   amnesic aphasia, amnestic aphasia, anomia, anomic aphasia, nominal aphasia

   inability to name objects or to recognize written or spoken names of objects

   transcortical aphasia

   a general term for aphasia that results from lesions outside of Broca's area or Wernicke's area of the cerebral cortex

   alexia, visual aphasia, word blindness

   inability to perceive written words

   Wernicke's aphasia, fluent aphasia, impressive aphasia, receptive aphasia, sensory aphasia

   aphasia characterized by fluent but meaningless speech and severe impairment of the ability understand spoken or written words

   auditory agnosia

   inability to recognize or understand the meaning of spoken words

   visual agnosia

   inability to recognize or interpret objects in the visual field

   type of:

   nervous disorder, neurological disease, neurological disorder

   a disorder of the nervous system