ABNORMALITIES OF MOTOR BEHAVIOUR

• Psychomotor Retardation: Slowed mental and motor activities.
• Stupor: A state in which a person does not react to the surroundings: (mute, immobile and unresponsive).
• Catatonic Stupor: Stupor with rigid posturing
• Psychomotor Agitation: Restlessness with psychological tension. (Patient is not fully aware of restlessness.)
• Catatonic Excitement: Marked agitation, impulsivity and aggression without external provocation.
• Chorea: sudden involuntary movement of several muscle groups with the resultant action appearing like part of voluntary movement.
• Aggression: Verbal or physical hostile behaviour, with rage and anger.
• Akathisia: Inability to keep sitting still, due to a compelling subjective feeling of restlessness.
• Dyskinesia: Restless movement of group of muscles (face, neck, hands).
• Dystonia: Painful severe muscle spasm.
• Torticollis: Contraction of neck muscles.
• Tics: Sudden repeated involuntary muscle twisting. e.g. repeated blinking, grimacing.
• Compulsions: Compelling repeated irrational actions associated with obsessions. e.g. repeated hand washing.
• Echopraxia: Imitative repetition of movement of somebody.
• Waxy Flexibility: Patient’s limbs may be moved like wax, holding position for long period of time before returning to previous position.
• Stereotypies: Purposeless repetitive involuntary movements. e.g. foot tapping, thigh rocking.
• Mannerism: Odd goal-directed movements. e.g. repeated hand movement resembling a military salute.
• Automatic obedience:  the pt. carries out every instruction regardless of the consequences.
• Perseveration: is a senseless repetition of a goal-directed action, a particular response, such as a word, phrase, or gesture which has already served its purpose (beyond their relevance).
• Dyspraxia; inability to carryout complex motor tasks, although the component motor movements are preserved.
• Omega sign (Athanassio): the occurrence of a fold like the Greek letter omega in the forehead above the root of the nose produced by the excessive action of the corrugator muscle; seen in depression.
• Ambitendency: a motor symptom of schizophrenia in which there is an alternating mixture of automatic obedience and negativism.
• Mitgehen: The pt. moves his body in the direction of the slightest pressure on the part of the examiner. seen in catatonia
• Mitmachen (Co-operation): The body can be put to any position without any resistance on the part of the pt. seen in catatonia.
• Trichotillomania: a condition characterized by an overwhelming urge to pluck out specific hairs.
• Pyromania: impulsive repetitive, deliberate fir-setting without external rewards.
• Dipsomania: uncontrollable craving for alcohol or compulsive drinking of alcohol.
• Kleptomania: a disorder in which the individual impulsively steals things other than personal use or financial gain.
• Negativism:  an apparently motiveless resistance to all commands and attempts to be moved or doing just the opposite.

References

1. Psychiatry, Third Edition. Edited by Allan Tasman, Jerald Kay, Jeffrey A. Lieberman, Michael B. First and Mario Maj. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2008.
2. Sims, A. Symptoms in the Mind: An Introduction to Descriptive Psychopathology (3rd ed). Elsevier, 2002.
3. Fish, F. Clinical Psychopathology, Signs and Symptoms in Psychiatry. Bristol: J. Wright & Sons. 1967.

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