Paradoxical neuropsychiatry: an unusual course of common diseases

The review article examines unusual situations from the point of view of traditional neuropsychiatry, when brain damage does not lead to an increase in the defect, but to its decrease or disappearance. Similar unusual and unexpected effects of cerebral lesions are observed in patients with different types of the disease. Special attention is paid to stroke and traumatic brain injury. The paper presents the results of studies showing a decrease in the severity of extrapyramidal disorders, pain syndromes, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and various kinds of addictions in patients after a stroke. Cases of regression of epileptic seizures and behavioral disorders after traumatic brain injury are also considered. It is emphasized that such unusual effects are based on the reorganization of cerebral connections with the activation of inhibitory mechanisms that normally do not manifest themselves clinically, or with certain features of neuroplasticity processes occurring in pathological conditions.