Huntington's Disease
Signs & Symptoms
Symptoms of the Huntington's Disease vary in range,
severity, age at onset and rate of clinical progression
from patient to patient. However, the disorder is
classically associated with progressive emotional,
cognitive and motor disturbances. Initial signs may
include:
- Slight personality changes
- Forgetfulness
- Clumsiness
- Gradual development of random, brief,
"fidgeting" movements of the fingers or
toes (8).
Neurobehavioral Changes:
Emotional or behavioral changes develop gradually and may
appear significantly before or concurrently with motor
manifestations. Initial symptoms of personality changes
include:
- Increased irritability
- Tendency to find fault with others
- Constant complaining
- Suspiciousness
- Impulsiveness
- Lack of self-control
- Lack of interest in acts that previously provided pleasure (anhedonia)
Psychological
Changes
Behavioral, emotional, or psychiatric changes become apparent
and include the following:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Mania
- Depression with mania
- Obsessive-compulsive behaviors
- Agitation
- Hostile outbursts
- Sleep disturbances
- Increasing social withdrawal (9).
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Cognitive Decline:
Progressive dementia or gradual impairment of mental
processes involving comprehension, reasoning, judgment
and memory are some of the typical signs of HD. Early
signs include forgetfulness and difficulty in maintaining
focus and attention. Additional symptoms include:
- Increased difficulty in concentrating
- Inability to absorb and understand new
information
- Impaired ability to engage in problem solving
- Diminished memory retrieval
- Progressively impaired judgment and impulse
control
- Diminished language skills with disorganized
speech
- Increasingly impaired ability to plan, initiate,
or perform certain purposeful movements (apraxia)
- Communication difficulties such as thought
expression and comprehending others words
- Difficulty in initiating conversations (10).
Motor Disturbances:
Early signs of motor disturbances typically include gradual onset of clumsiness,
balance difficulties and brief, random, "fidgeting" movements.
Initially, chorea or frequent irregular, jerky motions are incorporated
into intentional actions with potentially masking symptoms and delaying
recognition of the condition. Chorea may start in the fingers and toes
and extend to the arms, legs, face and the trunk. Many patients develop
a distinctive manner of walking with unsteady, disjointed, or lurching
movement. Some of the other motor disturbances include:
- Clumsy fine motor movements
- Postural instability
- Inability to sustain some voluntary movements
- Poor control of the tongue and diaphragm
- Difficulty in swallowing (dysphagia)
- Poorly articulated, slurred speech (dysarthria)
- A strained, hoarse, or inappropriately loud voice
- Oculomotor abnormalities such as impaired control of voluntary eye
movements related to focusing on objects in the visual field during
movement i.e., abnormal saccades may also be associated symptom of HD
(11).
Article by Kona Vishnu, MS
Medical Writer,
OmniMedicalSearch.com
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