Pediatric Movement Disorders - Psychogenic Disorders

Workup

In some cases, it is possible to determine that a movement disorder is psychogenic simply because the abnormal movements appear very different from all known neurological disorders. Clues that a disorder may be psychogenic include if the symptoms...

• were most severe right at the beginning rather than increasing gradually
• started during or immediately following a stressful situation, and
• changed or resolved when the child was distracted by another activity.

However, in most cases, it is very difficult to determine whether the disorder is neurological or psychological. It is therefore important to look for any possible neurologic cause for the movements. A psychogenic disorder is a "diagnosis of exclusion," which means that other likely possibilities must be excluded before symptoms can be attributed to a psychogenic cause.