Brain tumors can be tricky, as hardly any clearly recognizable typical early warning signs are seen for a long time. Often, a sudden seizure is the first sign of the disease.

Possible symptoms:

• Consciousness disorder/apathy/personality change
• Bladder dysfunction
• Sensory disturbance/numbness/abnormal sensation
• Epileptic seizure
• Gait insecurity
• Memory disorder
• Coordination disorder
• Headache
• Arm or leg weakness
• Vertigo

Carpal tunnel syndrome is one of the most common neurological disorders. It involves pinching of the metacarpal nerve (median nerve) in the area of the wrist (Latin: carpus).

Possible symptoms:

• Sensory disturbance/Numbness/Abnormal sensation
• Muscular distrophy

The most common cause of cerebral hemorrhage is elevated blood pressure. Coagulation disorders or the use of blood-thinning medication can also promote a cerebral hemorrhage. Another cause is vascular malformations or tumors.

Possible symptoms:

• Consciousness disorder/apathy/personality change
• Double vision
• Gait insecurity
• Memory disorder
• Balance disorder
• Coordination disorder
• Headache
• Arm or leg weakness
• Vertigo
• Visual disturbance
• Speech/language/swallowing disorder
• Clumsiness of hands

Mild traumatic brain injury (concussion) is one of the most common neurological conditions of all. Many types of head injuries, such as cuts or skull contusions, do not usually pose a threat to life. However, invisible injuries inside the skull can be particularly dangerous in any head injury, for example brain swelling or bleeding within the head.

Possible symptoms:

• Movement disorder/Rigidity
• Consciousness disorder/Apathy/Personality change
• Bladder dysfunction
• Double vision
• Erectile dysfunction
• Memory problems
• Balance disorder
• Coordination disorder
• Vertigo

The changes in the brain that cause dementia can result from a variety of physical conditions, including circulatory disorders, certain thyroid disorders, chronic poisoning, for example due to excessive alcohol or drug use. Brain tumors can also affect the brain’s activity and lead to dementia.

Possible Symptoms:

• Consciousness disorder/apathy/personality change
• Memory disorder
• Sleep-wake disorders

Accidents involving injury to the spinal column can be responsible for spinal cord problems, as can the effects of specific diseases or pressure from tumors on the spinal cord.

Possible symptoms:

• Movement disorder/Rigidity
• Bladder dysfunction
• Erectile dysfunction
• Unsteady gait
• Memory problems
• Balance disorder
• Coordination disorder

Dystonia involves a malfunction in the control of movements that originates in the brain and cannot be influenced voluntarily. It is now classified as a movement disorder. The cause of dystonia is currently still unclear.

Possible symptoms:

• Movement disorder/Rigidity
• Facial Twitches
• Muscle cramps

Normally, stronger discharges in the brain are kept in check by the natural inhibition that generally exists in the brain, so they cannot spread abnormally. Nevertheless, even healthy people can occasionally experience an epileptic seizure (occasional seizure) without being diagnosed with epilepsy.

Possible symptoms:

• Consciousness disorder/apathy/personality change
• Sensory disturbance/numbness/abnormal sensation
• Memory disorder
• Vertigo

The exact origin of essential tremor is not known, but it is known that the cerebellum plays a role in its development. Some patients may have a mild balance disorder, which is part of the disease.

Possible symptoms:

• Balance disorder
• Trembling or shaking

The cause of isolated facial paralysis is usually harmless inflammation of the facial nerve involved, for example due to a simple viral infection.

Possible symptoms:

• Facial paralysis

As in the very painful trigeminal neuralgia, the cause is a vascular loop inside the head, where the nerve exits the brain. This presses on the nerve and triggers the muscle twitching. Rarely, the cause can also be a tumor pressing on the nerve or simple inflammation of the nerve.

Possible symptoms:

• Facial twitches

During the ageing process, but also due to handling heavy loads or an incorrect posture, a herniated disc can occur, in which parts of the connective tissue material between the vertebral bodies protrude or prolapse.

Possible symptoms:

• Bladder dysfunction
• Sensory disturbance/numbness/misfeeling
• Erectile dysfunction
• Gait insecurity
• Muscle cramps
• Muscle pain
• Back pain
• Arm or leg weakness

Insomnia is said to occur when falling asleep takes significantly longer (> 30 minutes) or when sleeping through the night is disturbed and there are symptoms of fatigue the next day.

• Possible diagnoses:
  • Sleeplessness (Insomnia)
  • Restless legs syndrome
  • Sleep apnea Syndrome

There are several factors that can lead to meningitis. The most common cause is infection by viruses or bacteria. Infectious meningitis involves the spread of the pathogens in the body through the blood.

Possible symptoms:

• Consciousness disorder/apathy/personality change
• Headache

The cause of migraine is not completely understood. Presumably, a combination of hereditary factors, changes in the reaction of vessel walls and blood flow to the brain, inflammation in the vicinity of the head vessels, and disturbances in the chemical messengers (“neurotransmitters”) in the brain are responsible for its development.

Possible symptoms:

• Sensory disturbance/Numbness/Abnormal sensation
• Memory disorder
• Headache
• Vertigo

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) that is so far incurable. Initially, the disease progresses insidiously and later leads to increasingly burdensome physical disabilities.

Possible symptoms:

• Movement disorder/Rigidity
• Bladder dysfunction
• Double vision
• Sensory disturbance/Numbness/Abnormal sensation
• Erectile dysfunction
• Gait insecurity
• Memory disorder
• Sleep-wake disorders
• Balance disorder
• Coordination disorder
• Vertigo

Muscular dystrophies are hereditary muscle diseases that lead to increasing muscle weakness due to progressive muscle wasting. These are caused by changes in or absence of certain endogenous proteins that are part of muscle cells.

Possible symptoms:

• Muscle pain

The cause is a misdirected immune response; myasthenia is therefore classified as an autoimmune disease. The misdirected antibodies accumulate on the muscle where the impulse transmission between nerve and muscle occurs and inhibit it.

Possible symptoms:

• Double vision
• Weakness in the arm or leg
• Speech/language/swallowing disorder

Narcolepsy is a neurological disease with extreme daytime sleepiness, which can lead to microsleeps while driving. A deficiency of the neurotransmitter hypocretin in the brain has been identified as the cause.

The cause is an infection with bacteria-like pathogens that are transmitted via a tick bite. In the first stage of Lyme disease, there is usually a local skin infection around the tick bite, which is characterized by a spread of redness up to the size of a hand. The edge is sometimes more intensely colored, giving the skin infection a ring-shaped appearance.

Possible symptoms:

• Double vision
• Sensory disturbance/numbness/misfeeling
• Facial paralysis
• Headache

Parkinson’s Disease is a continuously progressive neurological disorder in which the cells of the so-called substantia nigra, the “black brain substance,” slowly degenerate, and subsequently other brain cells as well. This results in a deficiency of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which in turn manifests itself in the typical symptoms of the disease.

Posssible symptoms:

• Movement disorder/Rigidity
• Bladder dysfunction
• Unsteady gait
• Memory problems
• Balance disorder
• Falls
• Clumsiness of hands
• Sleep-wake disorders

Polyneuropathies are diseases of the so-called peripheral nerves, i.e. those nerves that extend from the center of the spinal cord to the body (i.e. to more distant parts =periphery) or vice versa.

Possible symptoms:

• Sensory disturbance/Numbness/Abnormal sensation
• Unsteady gait
• Memory problems
• Balance disorder
• Muscle cramps
• Muscular dystrophy
• Restless legs

There is strong evidence that a disturbance of the dopamine metabolism in the brain is responsible for the urge to move and the unpleasant sensations when sitting and lying down in RLS. The disease is often inherited, and iron deficiency often plays an important role.

Possible symptoms:

• Sensory disturbance/Numbness/Abnormal sensation
• Sleep-wake disorders

Sleep apnea syndrome is of great importance because of its extremely frequent occurrence in the population, its negative impacts on daytime wakefulness and cardiovascular health and because it has negative effects on all other sleep disorders, especially in patients with neurological diseases.

The wide and colorful range of different behavioral disorders and unusual sensations during sleep, ranging from sleep paralysis to complex and sometimes dangerous sleepwalking, is particularly difficult to distinguish because the sleeper, by nature, can provide little or no information about the phenomena during sleep.

A wide variety of sleep-related movement disorders, ranging from isolated muscle spasms or twitching to periodically recurring leg movements during sleep (PLMS), are particularly difficult to distinguish from each other or from epileptic seizures because the sleeper naturally can provide little or no information about the phenomena during sleep, and the other person in the bed often does not notice anything either.

Over a lifetime, the lower lumbar spine in particular is subjected to high mechanical loads and degenerative changes occur.

Possible symptoms:

• Bladder dysfunction
• Unsteady gait
• Back pain
• Arm or leg weakness

Stroke is a sudden loss of certain functions of the brain. In most cases the cause is the sudden blockage of a cerebral artery by a blood clot.

Possible symptoms:

• Movement disorder/Rigidity
• Consciousness disorder/Apathy/Personality change
• Bladder dysfunction
• Double vision
• Unsteady gait
• Memory problems
• Coordination disorder
• Vertigo
• Visual disturbance

The medical causes of tension headaches have not been definitively clarified. Tension in the head, neck or shoulder muscles due to heavy strain or poor posture, for example due to an unfavorably designed computer workstation, are probably among the many possible causes.

Possible symptoms:

• Headache

Usually the cause is a vascular loop inside the head (where the nerve exits the brain) that is pressing on the nerve and triggering the sensations.

Possible symptoms:

• Sensory disturbance/Numbness/Abnormal sensation
• Facial pain