[2015] Sadie Thompson: Huntington's Disease

Huntington's disease is a disease that causes the breakdown of nerve cells in the brain. It has an impact on a persons functional abilities and ends in movement, thinking, and psychiatric disorders. Huntington's disease is autosomal dominant which means one of the altered genes in each cell is likely to cause the disorder. People inherit this altered gene if one of their parents are affected. It is caused by a defect inhereted by a single gene.

Huntington's Disease

**There are no known treatments for HD. **There are, however, medications that can help reduce the symptoms. -Tetrabenazine -Haloperidol & Chlorpromazine -Citalopram, Fluoxetine,& Sertraline.-Quetiapine, Risperidone,& Olanzapine.-Valproate, Carbamazepine,& LamotrigineTo help with the symptoms you can also go to Psycho-, Speech, Pysical,& Occupational therapy

Symptoms

This is what it looks like!

Movement **Involuntary jerking or writhing movements (chorea)**Muscle problems, such as rigidity or muscle contracture (dystonia)**Slow or abnormal eye movements**Impaired gait, posture and balance**Difficulty with the physical production of speech or swallowing

Thinking **Difficulty organizing, prioritizing or focusing on tasks**Lack of flexibility or the tendency to get stuck on a thought, behavior or action**Lack of impulse control that can result in outbursts, acting without thinking and sexual promiscuity**Lack of awareness of one's own behaviors and abilities**Slowness in processing thoughts or ''finding'' words**Difficulty in learning new information

Psychiatric**Feelings of irritability, sadness or apathy**Social withdrawalInsomnia**Fatigue and loss of energy**Frequent thoughts of death, dying or suicide

A parent with a defective Huntington gene could pass along the altered copy of the gene or the healthy copy. Each child in the family has a 50 percent chance of inheriting the gene that causes HD.

Today there are many different researches being done for Huntington's Disease. 1)Basic neurobiology. 2)Clinical research. 3)Imaging. 4)Fetal tissue research.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/269398.php

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