Therapeutics of disordered movement.

Human motor behavior is organized around two major neurotransmitter systems in the basal ganglia--dopaminergic and cholinergic. Hypokinetic disease may result from hypofunction of the dopaminergic system or cholinergic hyperfunction. The reverse seems true for many hyperkinetic movement disorders. Drugs which facilitate dopaminergic neurotransmission or which block cholinergic transmission relieve many hypokinetic disorders; the opposite approach is useful in treating many hyperkinetic disorders.