Encephalopathy

ENCEPHALOPATHY (from Greek encephalon—brain and pathos—suffering), etymologically—a disease depending on a lesion of the brain. Various authors invest different content into the concept of encephalopathy: as encephalopathy, they describe various traumatic, infectious, toxic diseases of the brain associated with lesions of the endocrine apparatus, and sometimes even systemic lesions. Symptoms in encephalopathy are quite diverse depending on the etiology and the topography of the lesion. Typical groups of symptoms are described as special encephalopathic syndromes. In French literature, by infantile encephalopathies (a term by Brissaud), one usually understands all diseases of early childhood that manifest at birth or immediately after this moment. Only the term encephalopathia saturnina has gained general currency for designating brain disease in lead poisoning (see Lead). Mercury encephalopathy has also been described, manifesting in a number of neurological and psychiatric symptoms depending on a diffuse process in the brain with predominant involvement of the cerebellum and participation of the autonomic nervous system.