Infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy

Infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy, abbreviated INAD, is a rare pervasive developmental disorder that primarily affects the nervous system. Individuals with the condition typically have no symptoms at birth. Between about 6 and 18 months of age they begin to show delays in acquiring new motor and intellectual skills, such as crawling or beginning to speak, and eventually they lose skills they had previously acquired. The article lead describes this course of delayed development followed by loss of earlier abilities as the defining pattern of the disorder, and it presents the condition as one that appears in infancy in children who seemed unaffected at birth. The lead does not state a cause, a treatment or a first description, so this entry records only what the lead supports and leaves those facts for later research.