Talking about the various challenges in tackling the burden of movement disorders in India, Dr. Prashanth LK said that the primary challenge is creating awareness about movement disorders among the public and at the level of various medical specialties.

Movement disorders are a large variety of diseases, which are under acknowledged, but commonly present in the population. 

The number of cases of ageing-related movement disorders are set to explode in India in the coming years due to increasing life expectancy and overall changes happening to general health of people, experts have said ahead of the first-ever World Movement Disorders Day.

The International Parkinson and Movement Disorders Society has chosen 29^th November to commemorate the birth anniversary of Jean-Charcot Martin, - Father of modern neurology and to create awareness about Movement Disorders.  Movement disorders are a large variety of diseases, which are under acknowledged, but commonly present in the population. 

Dr. Prashanth LK, Parkinson's Disease & Movement Disorders Specialist, Center for Parkinson's Disease & Movement Disorders, Manipal Hospitals, Bengaluru say’s “The recent Covid-19 infections caused a significant immune response in most people, leading to ‘acceleration’ of the ageing phenomenon and burning out of normal cells or neurons in the brain. This can possibly lead to an outbreak of ageing-related and neuro-degenerative disorders in near future. Combined with increasing life expectancy, this may trigger a major spike in movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, Parkinsonism with dementia over the next decade in India.”

The doctor added: “There has been a steady increase in patients at our movement disorders clinic over the years. In the initial phases, we were mainly seeing patients of Parkinson’s disease. However, with increased awareness and access to social media, the spectrum of movement disorders being witnessed at our clinic has widened now, with various parkinsonism syndromes, drug / medication-induced movement disorders, ataxic syndromes, Chorea, dystonias such as cervical dystonia, task-specific dystonia such as writer’s cramp, and autoimmune movement disorders becoming more common.”

Talking about the various challenges in tackling the burden of movement disorders in India, Dr. Prashanth LK said: “The primary challenge is creating awareness about movement disorders among the public and at the level of various medical specialties. Many patients visit different doctors for months before they get properly referred to a movement disorders specialist.