What are neurological disorders?
Q: What are neurological disorders and how many people are affected by them?
A: Neurological disorders are diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system. In other words, the brain, spinal cord, cranial nerves, peripheral nerves, nerve roots, autonomic nervous system, neuromuscular junction, and muscles. These disorders include epilepsy, Alzheimer disease and other dementias, cerebrovascular diseases including stroke, migraine and other headache disorders, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, neuroinfections, brain tumours, traumatic disorders of the nervous system such as brain trauma, and neurological disorders as a result of malnutrition.
Mental disorders, on the other hand, are "psychiatric illnesses" or diseases which appear primarily as abnormalities of thought, feeling or behaviour, producing either distress or impairment of function.
Hundreds of million of people worldwide are affected by neurological disorders: For example, 50 million people have epilepsy; 62 million are affected by cerebrovascular disease; 326 million people suffer from migraine; 24 million are affected by Alzheimer disease and other dementias globally.
