HUNTINGTON DISEASE

Huntington’s Disease

Huntington’s disease is a brain disease that targets the nerve cells in the brain, via progressive breakdown. This breakdown causes degeneration on the said cells, affecting various functions of the body, like movement ability, cognitive (thinking process) ability, and a predisposition to psychiatric disorders.

This disease is considered as one of the rarer brain diseases known to man today and usually is inherited. This targets the age group of 30s and 40s, but some cases can develop in the 20s age group, wherein it is called “Juvenile Huntington’s Disease.” Early development of the said disease will have very different symptoms and tend to progress faster than usual.

Luckily, this disease has medications available for affected individuals, which helps them deal with the common symptoms associated with it. However, those same medications cannot entirely prevent declines that will affect an individual with the said disease, namely behavioral, physical, and mental declines.

SYMPTOMS

As mentioned earlier, this disease affects the following: movement ability, cognitive (thinking process) ability, and psychiatric disorders. Those modified functions show various symptoms, with its signs for most traits, which some can be dominant, resulting in a significant effect on that ability. However, those symptoms can change during the disease’s lifespan.

1. Movement Disorders

Symptoms for this function disorder mostly affect the body’s motor functions, causing involuntary movements and voluntary movements having some impairments, which are listed below:

  • Jerking involuntarily or writhing movements (Chorea)
  • Muscle problems such as muscle rigidity or contracture (Dystonia)
  • Affected eye movements, such as slow or abnormal movements
  • Altered balance, posture, and impaired gait
  • Speech or swallowing difficulties

The symptoms above can severely affect an infected individual’s everyday life, wherein the workability, daily activities and chores, communication, and independence are profoundly impacted.

2. Cognitive Disorders

Symptoms for this function ability disorder are listed below:

  • Prioritizing, organizing, and focusing difficulties on various tasks
  • A high tendency to be stuck in their thoughts, behaviors, and actions (i.e., preservation) can result in a lack of flexibility.
  • Sudden outbursts, thoughtless actions, and sexual promiscuity due to the lack of impulse control
  • Lacking awareness for the own behavior abilities of a person
  • Processing thoughts or words in a slow manner
  • Learning new information in great difficulty

3. Psychiatric Disorders

Aside from movement and cognitive disorders, there are also psychiatric disorders associated with Huntington’s Disease, wherein the most commonly known disorder for this disease is depression. The reason why depression is common due to brain damage and functional changes of the illness, with the signs and symptoms of it listed below:

  • Irritability, sadness or apathy
  • Social withdrawal
  • Insomnia
  • Fatigue and loss of energy
  • Having thoughts of death, dying, or suicide frequently.

Additionally, below are some of the other disorders associated with this disease:

  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder – symptoms for this are having recurrent, intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviors.
  • Mania – symptoms for this are mood elevation, overactivity, impulsive behavior, and inflated self-esteem.
  • Bipolar disorder– symptoms for this are alternating episodes of depression and mania.

Juvenile Huntington’s Disease Symptoms

As mentioned earlier, Juvenile Huntington’s Disease has different symptoms with the regular one, which are listed below:

1. Behavioral changes

  • Having difficulties in paying attention
  • Noticeable drops in school performance, either rapidly or drastically
  • Problems in behavior

2. Physical changes

  • Muscles are usually contracted and rigid, affecting gait (usually with younger children)
  • Tremors or slight involuntary movements
  • Having falls or episodes of clumsiness frequently
  • Seizures

Possible affected persons should see their doctor if they experience any of the symptoms mentioned above, mainly if it occurs to people in their 20s or younger.

TREATMENT

Unfortunately, there is no current treatment available for this disease. This disease is mostly inherited through family genes, and therefore, cannot be treated by usual medications once a person has been affected by it. However, there are two known ways of prevention so that this disease cannot to be passed on the next generation, which are listed below.

The first way of prevention is through genetic testing, wherein a couple who has a history of having Huntington’s Disease in their family tree should undergo counseling from a genetic counselor. The counselor will explain how testing will work and what would be the possible effects of the test results.

The second way of prevention is via in vitro fertilization and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, which are both commonly done in a laboratory. This involves harvesting fertile eggs from the ovaries of the mother. It then is fertilized with the father’s sperm in a laboratory, which then is tested for the Huntington gene when it reaches an embryo state. If found negative, the embryo will then be implanted back inside the mother’s uterus.

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