This review clarifies the fact that basal ganglia diseases are psychiatric as much as neurological diseases. It illustrates psychiatric aspects in Parkinson's disease and other hereditary basal ganglia diseases such as Wilson's disease, Huntington's chorea and others. In these diseases, psychological disorders can be difficult to diagnose, whether they are concomitant with the primary (neurological) disease, they are its consequence, or they are the result of a specific pharmacotherapy prescribed for these disease, etc. Thus, the choice of appropriate psychopharmacotherapy for these disorders represents a very subtle problem.