ORPHA:363746
Balint syndrome
Also known as: Balint-Holmes syndrome · Optic ataxia-gaze apraxia-simultanagnosia syndrome
Publications
409
65.2th percentile
Trials
0
Interventional, condition-specific
Researchers
764
Distinct authors in sample
Gene link
—
Readiness
2/6
Stages with a signal
Clinical definition (Orphanet)
Balint syndrome is a rare neurologic disease characterized by the triad of optic , ocular apraxia and simultanagnosia due to posterior parietal lobe lesions. Patients report ophthalmologic difficulties in the absence of underlying ophthalomologic anomalies and present severe visual and spatial disabilities in locating and reaching objects, initiating voluntary eye movements and perceiving more than one object at a time.
How rare: How common this is has not been clearly measured.
Cross-references
Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.
- MONDO:0018211
- UMLS:C4707368
Additional Mondo synonyms (2)
optic ataxia-gaze apraxia-simultanagnosia syndrome · psychic paralysis of visual fixation
Research stages
Trial readiness signals
Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”
2/6 stages with a signal
Research-stage checklist from open sources (GenCC, literature, Monarch when enriched, ClinicalTrials.gov). Not a prognosis or care recommendation.
- Gene identifiedNot found
No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build
- LiteraturePresent
409 matched papers (167 in last 10 years) Source
- Phenotype characterisedPresent
1 HPO annotations (e.g. Oculomotor apraxia) Source
- Animal modelNot found
No Alliance genotype “model of” associations via Monarch for these Mondo IDs
- Orphan designationNot found
No FDA or EMA orphan-drug designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name Source
- Interventional trialNot found
No matched interventional trial under our ClinicalTrials.gov rules
Biology
Genes and phenotypes
Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.
Do we know what causes it?
Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.
No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.
Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)
None returned for this Mondo ID. Empty here is not proof that no model organism work exists under another name or gene.
Monarch fetch 2026-07-29
Therapies
Designations, candidates, and chemicals
FDA OOPD and EMA orphan designations, Open Targets clinical candidates, and CTD chemical associations via MyDisease.info. These never change the interventional-trial headline.
Orphan designation (FDA · EMA)
No designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name on the FDA OOPD mirror or EMA orphan register. Absence here is not proof that none exists under another wording.
Open Targets candidates
No drugs or clinical candidates returned for this Mondo ID on Open Targets.
CTD chemicals (MyDisease.info)
No CTD chemical associations returned for this Mondo ID.
Literature
Is anyone studying this?
409
409 papers have ever been published on this condition (under this name). For scale, breast cancer has over 700,000. Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=3967) is 59.
409 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 59 (publications denominator n=3967).
167 in the last 10 years · medium confidence · 65.2th percentile (publications denominator)
Phrase hits: 409 · MeSH hits: 0
Who's working on it?
764
Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.
Who's working on it?
No interventional trial matched this name; these authors publish on it in the sampled literature — a practical starting point for contact.
- 01Humphreys GW9 papers · 2009
Behavioural Brain Sciences Centre, Hills Building-School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, England. g.w.humphreys@bham.ac.uk
Papers in Europe PMC - 02Pisella L9 papers · 2025
Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), ImpAct, INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Lyon University and Neurological Hospital L. Wertheimer, Bron, France.
Papers in Europe PMC - 03Dutton GN8 papers · 2026
Department of Vision Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow G4 0BA, UK.
Papers in Europe PMC - 04Graff-Radford J6 papers · 2025
Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
Papers in Europe PMC - 05Josephs KA6 papers · 2025
Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
Papers in Europe PMC - 06Machulda MM6 papers · 2025
Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
Papers in Europe PMC - 07Mendez MF6 papers · 2022
Department of Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine, USA. mmendez@UCLA.edu
Papers in Europe PMC - 08Vighetto A6 papers · 2019
Unité de neuro-ophtalmologie, service de neurologie D, hospices civils de Lyon, hôpital neurologique, 59, boulevard Pinel, 69677 Bron cedex, France; Université Lyon 1, 43, boulevard du 11-novembre-1918, Villeurbanne, France; Inserm U1028 et CNRS UMR5292, équipe Impact, centre de recherche en neurosciences de Lyon, centre hospitalier Est, bâtiment B13, 59, boulevard Pinel, 69677 Bron cedex, France. Electronic address: alain.vighetto@chu-lyon.fr.
Papers in Europe PMC - 09Whitwell JL6 papers · 2025
Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
Papers in Europe PMC - 10Benito-León J5 papers · 2024
Department of Neurology, University Hospital 12 de Octubre, Madrid, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Madrid, Spain; Department of Medicine, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: jbenitol67@gmail.com.
Papers in Europe PMC
Clinical research
Is a treatment being tested?
0
interventional trials for this specific condition
No interventional trial testing a treatment matched this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov (observational studies and pan-disease registries are listed separately when present).
Data as of 11 September 2026 · last trial check 11 September 2026
No matched interventional trials. This is true for 77.2% of diseases in the trials denominator (5501 of 7126). Here are the researchers publishing on it.
medium confidence · 38.6th percentile (trials denominator)
Recruiting interventional trials
From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set
No interventional trial testing a treatment was found for this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov.
See who's working on it — people publishing on this disease are often the practical next contact when no trial is listed.
Other registries (secondary)
Broader net from EU CTIS, ISRCTN, and ICTRP when available — deduped against ClinicalTrials.gov IDs already counted above. Dual-model LLM relevance gates what we keep. These rows are not added to the interventional headline.
raw 0 · after dedupe 0 · already on CT.gov 0 · kept 0 · parent 0 · uncertain 0 · dropped 0 · fetched 2026-07-30
Source notes: ictrp: Error: ICTRP public search unavailable (WHO portal is SPA-only; SOAP needs partnership). Tried: https://apps.who.int/tri
No secondary-registry studies passed dual-model relevance for this condition name (after dedupe).
Where to find support
Condition-specific patient organisations, when Orphanet lists them, are on the disease’s Orphanet page. We also link umbrella groups that support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families.
Orphanet entry for Balint syndrome — check Associations / patient organisations on that page.
India — NPRD
Last verified 2026-07-26This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.
Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.
How we counted this
Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.
"Balint syndrome" OR "Balint-Holmes syndrome" OR "Optic ataxia-gaze apraxia-simultanagnosia syndrome" OR "psychic paralysis of visual fixation" OR "psychic paralysis of the visual fixation"
ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):
"Balint syndrome" OR "Balint-Holmes syndrome" OR "Optic ataxia-gaze apraxia-simultanagnosia syndrome" OR "psychic paralysis of visual fixation" OR "psychic paralysis of the visual fixation"
Study-type breakdown: 0 interventional · 0 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.
Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase; with hits: phrase
Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov
Confidence reasoning
- Preferred label is short or not clearly distinctive
- No synonyms dropped by stoplist
- No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
Ingested 2026-07-27T14:43:59.236Z