Hntingson Disease

Huntingtons Disease: It is an incurable, hereditary brain disorder. It is a devastating disease for which there is no currently "effective" treatment. Nerve cells become damaged, causing various parts of the brain to deteriorate. The disease affects movement, behavior and cognition - the affected individuals' abilities to walk, think, reason and talk are gradually eroded to such a point that they eventually become entirely reliant on other people for their care. Huntington's disease has a major emotional, mental, social and economic impact on the lives of patients, as well as their families.

Symptoms: Signs and symptoms can appear at any age, but most commonly do so between the ages of 35 and 55 years. They will progressively worsen for ten to twenty years until the patient ultimately dies. Slight uncontrollable movements, Clumsiness, Stumbling, Some slight signs of lack of emotion, Lack of focus, slight concentration problems Lapses in short-term memory, Depression.

Treatment: No treatments can alter the course of Huntington's disease. But medications can lessen some symptoms of movement and psychiatric disorders. And multiple interventions can help a person adapt to changes in his or her abilities for a certain amount of time.Medication management is likely to evolve over the course of the disease, depending on the overall treatment goals. Also, drugs to treat some symptoms may result in side effects that worsen other symptoms. Therefore, the treatment goals and plan will be regularly reviewed and updated.

Statastics: The Hayden laboratory at the CMMT is investigating genetic signatures called ‘haplotypes’ in the huntingtin gene that might contribute to differences in HD prevalence in different populations. If you have information to add to this compilation of prevalence reports