Causes, symptoms and treatment of huntingtons desease in America

HUNTINGTONS DESEASE

Introduction: Huntington’s desease is believed to be fatal progressive form of dementia in which the personality, memory and moods change as the ailment advances. The name has been designated to Dr. George Huntington, who described it for the first time during 1872. This is the degenerative disease distinguished by jerking uncontrollable movements of the limbs, trunk and face which is progressively psychiatric difficulties and loss of mental abilities or control. It is estimated that this ailment has affected nearly 30,000 Americans signifying its occurrence of about 1 in every 10,000 people.

Types: Since several conditions are found to be causing this disease, some doctors and researchers have tried to classify cases of this disease into types based on what part of the brain is affected or what has caused the ailment. However, the disorders could be classified in several ways that attempt to group disorders having typical common features like whether they are progressive. The examples of different types may include: Cortical, Sub-cortical, Progressive and Secondary.

Causes: The causes of this desease is mainly the defect in the gene on chromosome number 4 which is better known as HD gene or Huntington disease gene and is responsible for generating a protein called Huntingtin. The body generates the abnormal Huntingtin protein when the defect takes place in the HD gene; it disturbs the regular function of several nerve cells, eventually resulting in their untimely death. The basic cause of HD symptoms is thus because of such dysfunction and loss of nerve cells.

Symptoms: The preliminary symptoms of these ailments are: progressive problem of lack of synchronization, mood and muscular control, irritability, anxiety, depression, swing in moods, absentmindedness, awkwardness, involuntary twitching, and problems with thinking, concentrating and short-term memory. Advance stage symptoms include: deteriorating ability of concentrating and short-term memory. Raised involuntary movements of the head, trunk and limbs; deterioration in walking, speaking and swallowing abilities, and irritating – aggressive and anti-social behaviors. Ultimately the patient loses total control on self and needs complete nursing care or hospitalization.

Diagnosis: An intensive interview for obtaining medical history including probable symptoms of HD while ruling out other conditions is done by the neurologist for diagnosing the ailment. Pedigree or genealogy is the methods often adopted by the physicians to diagnose the HD ailment. The family members should be totally frank when the doctor is interviewing them about the family history. The doctor would also evaluate patient’s hearing, eye movements, strength, coordination, sensation, reflexes, balance, movement and mental status, besides several laboratory tests.

Treatment: There is perhaps no cure or any solution for even slowing the progression of HD as yet. Hence the HD treatment chiefly focuses on controlling the emotional and movement problems connected with disorder. The treatment also focuses on providing care for making living easier with HD ailment. However, there are some medications prescribed for the disease symptoms but most of such drugs develop various side effects.

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