Psychomotor disorders: types, characteristics and symptoms

What are psychomotor disorders and how do they manifest themselves through body movements?

Movement is part of human behavior, and accompanies the actions we perform when we express desires, needs, etc., as well as when we communicate or interact with others. When this is altered in any way, the so-called psychomotor disorders appear.

In this article we will know the main psychomotor disordersas well as their most characteristic symptoms. In addition, we will speak of what psychomotor means.

Psychomotricity

Psychomotor skills involve the performance of the person in interaction with cognitive and affective experiences, and includes two elements: Muscle tone and kinesthetic harmony..

Muscle tone evolves throughout life, although it is in the first months of life when it is most important and when changes occur most rapidly. On the other hand, kinesthetic harmony is what allows us to chain gestural or motor movements and to place them in time and space.

What are psychomotor disorders?

Psychomotor disorders involve the alteration or psychopathology of psychomotor skills.. In other words, they involve abnormalities, deficits or alterations in movement.

These alterations translate into difficulties in neurodevelopment, which affect the perceptual-motor adaptation of the person.

Types

The main psychomotor disorders (and their symptoms) are as follows:

1. psychomotor agitation

This is the most common psychomotor disorder. It is a type of motor hyperactivity, in which the person emits gestures, movements and behaviors the person emits gestures, movements and behaviors in a rapid and successive manner and without a specific objective..

2. Stupor

Stupor implies an inhibition or psychomotor retardation, and is characterized by a state of consciousness in which an absence (akinesia) or reduction (hypokinesia) of movement and reactions predominates.

The person remains indifferent, oblivious or distant from the surrounding environment. In addition, there is an absence of relational functions and an absolute paralysis of the body.. It is usually associated also with mutism (the person does not speak).

3. Tremors

Tremors are oscillatory muscular movements, around a fixed point of the body, in the form of involuntary, rhythmic and rapid jerks.rhythmic and rapid. The tremors that are caused by alternating contractions of muscle groups.

They appear mainly in the head, face, tongue and extremities (especially the upper extremities). These psychomotor disorders are more infrequent in the trunk. They can be of three types: rest, postural and intentional.

4. Seizures

These are muscular movements in the form of violent and uncontrollable violent and uncontrollable contractions of the voluntary musculature.. They are manifested in one or several muscle groups or in a generalized way in the whole body.

They can appear associated with some diseases related to toxic-infectious conditions with cerebral involvement. Also, and especially, in epilepsy.

5. Tics

The tics are local, rapid and spasmodic muscular movements, that manifest themselves in an involuntary, isolated, unexpected, repetitive, repetitive, frequent, purposeless and at irregular intervals.without purpose and at irregular intervals. They occur in one or more parts of the body; rarely they affect muscles below the shoulders.

The most frequent tics are: winks of the eyes, stretching of the neck, movements of the head towards a side, frowns of the eyebrows, twisting of the corners of the lips and blinking.

They affect more males than females, and frequently appear for the first time in childhood (around the age of 7 years). A well-known psychomotor disorder with tics is the Gilles de Tourette's Disorder.

6. Spasms

These are involuntary, exaggerated and persistent muscular contractions that are located in the voluntary musculature and in the muscular fibers of the internal organs. A specific and frequent type of spasm is the torticular spasm, consisting of a rotational movement of the head to one side.

We can differentiate several types of spasm: professional, Bamberger's jumping spasm and Salaam's jumping spasm..

7. Catatonia

It is a syndrome that includes a series of symptoms: catalepsy, negativism, stupor, mutism, muscular rigidity, stereotypies and echosymptoms..

The person with catatonia manifests an immobile attitude and maintains rigid musculature; thus, it is possible to place the individual in a forced, uncomfortable or antigravitational position and that he/she remains in the same posture without trying to recover the original position for an indefinite time (this is the so-called waxy flexibility).

8. Stereotypies

Continuing with the psychomotor disorders, the eighth are the stereotypies, that is, the continuous and unnecessary repetition of movements or gestures that, unlike the tics, are organized and generally complex..

Typically they appear in the facial mimicry or in the general corporal. They are typical of disorders such as for example autism or schizophrenia. But we must differentiate two types: the simple ones (they appear in organic brain disorders) and the complex ones (they are observed in non-organic psychotic disorders).

9. Mannerisms

Mannerisms are movements called "parasitic", that is to say, what they do is to increase the expressivity of gestures and mimicry.. They appear mainly in psychopathological conditions similar to those that generate stereotypies (especially in psychotic disorders).

Examples of mannerisms are unmotivated or meaningless smiles, as well as forced postures.

10. Dyskinesias

These are involuntary movements of the tongue, mouth and face.. There are two types: acute and late. Late dyskinesias are originated as side effects of some antipsychotics.

11. Apraxias

The last of the psychomotor disorders, apraxias, involve difficulty in carrying out purposeful activities that require sequencing and orderly coordination of a series of movements (e.g., dressing, mailing a letter, etc.).

It translates into difficulty in performing activities that require a certain level of psychomotor complexity.. Apraxia in children is called "developmental dyspraxia".