Bálint's syndrome occurs most often with an acute onset as a consequence of two or more strokes at more or less the same place in each hemisphere.

The most frequent cause of complete Bálint's syndrome is said by some to be sudden and severe hypotension, resulting in bilateral borderzone infarction in the occipito-parietal region.

More rarely, cases of progressive Bálint's syndrome have been found in degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease or certain other traumatic brain injuries at the border of the parietal and the occipital lobes of the brain.

Therefore, clinicians should be familiar with Bálint's syndrome and its various etiologies.

Bálint's syndrome symptoms can be quite debilitating since they impact visuospatial skills, visual scanning and attentional mechanisms.

Therapists unfamiliar with Bálint's syndrome may misdiagnose a patient's inability to meet progress expectations in any of these symptom areas as simply indicating incapability of benefiting from further traditional therapy.

Victims of Bálint's syndrome perceive the world erratically, as a series of single objects rather than seeing the wholeness of a scene.

Optic ataxia is the inability to guide the hand toward an object using visual information where the inability cannot be explained by motor, somatosensory, visual field deficits or acuity deficits Optic ataxia is seen in Bálint's syndrome where it is characterized by an impaired visual control of the direction of arm-reaching to a visual target, accompanied by defective hand orientation and grip formation.

A patient with Bálint's syndrome likely has defective hand movements under visual guidance, despite normal limb strength.

The visual difficulties in Bálint's syndrome are usually due to damage to the top part of the temporal-occipital lobes on both sides of the brain.

Symptoms of Bálint's syndrome are most likely to be noticed first by therapists providing rehabilitation following brain lesions.

Any severe disturbance of space representation, spontaneously appearing following bilateral parietal damage, strongly suggests the presence of Bálint's syndrome and should be investigated as such.

One study reports that damage to the bilateral dorsal occipitoparietal regions appeared to be involved in Bálint's syndrome.

Bálint's syndrome has been found in patients with bilateral damage to the posterior parietal cortex.

Some telltale signs suggesting Bálint's syndrome following bilateral brain insults may include:

Three approaches to rehabilitation of perceptual deficits, such as those seen in Bálint's syndrome, have been identified:

A 58-year old male presented with Bálint's syndrome secondary to severe traumatic brain injury 4-months post-injury onset.

Bálint's syndrome is rarely reported in children, but some recent studies provide evidence that cases do exist in children.

A case involving a 10-year-old male child with Bálint's syndrome has been reported Similar results were seen in a 7-year-old boy.

The validity of Bálint's syndrome has been questioned by some.

Patients with simultanagnosia, a component of Bálint's syndrome, have a restricted spatial window of visual attention and cannot see more than one object at a time in a scene that contains more than one object.

Bálint's syndrome sufferers, who as a consequence of parietal lobe damage seem incapable of properly focusing attention, lend credence to this two-staged model of attention.

Research participant R. M., a Bálint's syndrome sufferer who is unable to focus attention on individual objects, experiences illusory conjunctions when presented with simple stimuli such as a " blue O " or a " red T ." For 23 % of trials, even when able to view the stimulus for as long as 10 seconds, R. M.

# redirect Bálint's syndrome

Acute hemorrhagic leukoencephalitis ( AHL, or AHLE ), also known as acute necrotizing encephalopathy ( ANE ), acute hemorrhagic encephalomyelitis ( AHEM ), acute necrotizing hemorrhagic leukoencephalitis ( ANHLE ), Weston-Hurst syndrome, or Hurst's disease, is a hyperacute and frequently fatal form of ADEM.

An example of X-linked ataxic condition is the rare fragile X-associated tremor / ataxia syndrome.

Optic ataxia is usually part of Balint's syndrome, but can be seen in isolation with injuries to the superior parietal lobule, as it represents a disconnection between visual-association cortex and the frontal premotor and motor cortex, and ataxic respiration ( lack of coordination in respiratory movements, usually due to dysfunction of the respiratory centres in the medulla oblongata ).

** Waterhouse – Friderichsen syndrome is adrenal gland failure due to bleeding into the adrenal glands, caused by severe bacterial infection.

It is also used to treat symptoms of traumatic brain injury ( TBI ) and the daytime drowsiness symptoms of narcolepsy, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome ( POTS ) and chronic fatigue syndrome ( CFS ).

There is a risk of a benzodiazepine withdrawal and rebound syndrome after continuous usage for longer than two weeks, and tolerance and dependence may occur if patients stay under this treatment for longer.

* Quetiapine ( Seroquel )-Used primarily to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and " off-label " to treat chronic insomnia and restless legs syndrome ; it is a powerful sedative.

Its main usefulness is the treatment of hyperkinetic movement disorders such as Huntington's disease and Tourette syndrome, rather than for conditions such as schizophrenia.

In the period of 3 – 6 weeks following cessation increased anxiety, depression as well as sleep disturbance is common ; fatigue and tension can persist for up to 5 weeks as part of the post-acute withdrawal syndrome ; about a quarter of alcoholics experience anxiety and depression for up to 2 years.

A kindling effect also occurs in alcoholics whereby each subsequent withdrawal syndrome is more severe than the previous withdrawal episode ; this is due to neuroadaptations which occur as a result of periods of abstinence followed by re-exposure to alcohol.

AVM is not generally thought to be an inherited disorder, unless in the context of a specific hereditary syndrome.

The syndrome of " Amok " is found in the DSM-IV TR.

Although commonly used in a colloquial and less-violent sense, the phrase is particularly associated with a specific sociopathic culture-bound syndrome in Malaysian culture.

Amok is often described as a culture-bound ( or culture-specific ) syndrome, which is a psychological condition whose manifestation is strongly shaped by cultural factors.

Long-term use is controversial due to concerns about adverse psychological and physical effects, increased questioning of effectiveness and because benzodiazepines are prone to cause tolerance, physical dependence, and, upon cessation of use after long term use, a withdrawal syndrome.

Tolerance can develop to their effects and there is also a risk of dependence, and upon discontinuation a withdrawal syndrome may occur.

Restless legs syndrome can be treated using clonazepam as a third line treatment option as the use of clonazepam is still investigational.

While catatonia is only identified as a symptom of schizophrenia in present psychiatric classifications, it is increasingly recognized as a syndrome with many faces.

; Acute coronary syndrome ( ACS ): Acute coronary syndrome is a broad term encompassing many acute myocardial infarction symptoms.