Movement disorders are a broad category of conditions that lead to repetitive movements. Our understanding of these conditions and the breadth of presentations is rapidly expanding. However, many aspects of these conditions remain unknown. The number of animals being diagnosed with movement disorders has exponentially grown over the past several years. However, movement disorders are not considered to be an emerging disease, but rather, our profession's awareness of these conditions has expanded.
Historically, many of these conditions may have been presumptively diagnosed as seizures.
Prior to the convenience of modern filming techniques (smart phones), clinicians have had to rely on owner descriptions of episodes. Even with excellent historical questioning, it can be extremely difficult to interpret these owner-derived descriptions. Thus, it is likely many of these movement disorders were misdiagnosed as seizures in the past. Although some of these conditions can respond to anticonvulsants, there are key features that distinguish movement disorders from seizures and explain why these cases also may have been considered "refractory" epileptics.
