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Huntington’s Disease
Brodie Nolan



Huntington’s disease, or Huntington’s chorea, was first described by an American physician, George Huntington, who was 22 at the time, in 1972 on his first medical paper, a year after Columbia University in New York. The description in the paper went on to describe a very famous and common neurological disease, effecting almost 8 in every 100, 000 people.

The disease itself is caused by a genetic abnormality on the short arm of chromosome 4and causes the CAG repeat (cytosine-adenine-guanine), which is normally only 10-35, to go crazy and repeat from 36 to 120 times, causing a major dysfunction in the nervous system. The gene is also 50% likely to be inherited by the child of the carrier. And if somebody inherits the gene they are guaranteed to become a sufferer. But if the child of a carrier does NOT carry the gene, their children are not at risk; however there is a tiny chance that they will receive the abnormal gene whether it is in their family history or not.

There are three types of symptoms: psychiatric, movement and cognitive. However symptoms do not begin to surface until the sufferer is 35-50 years old, unless they are a victim of Young HD, a similar disorder effecting the youth.

The psychiatric symptoms may include manic depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, bipolar, paranoia hallucinations, delusions, inappropriate behaviour and depression. Depression is so common that it makes Huntington’s so hard to diagnose, as the signs are inability to take pleasure in life, lack of energy and hostility.

The symptoms in movement may be an uncontrollable jerk in the face, arms, fingers, head or legs, and the more anxious or distressed the sufferer, the more jerky and uncontrollable the movements become. Dystonia, jaw-clenching, swallowing and eating difficulty, clumsiness, slurred speech and difficulty walking may also emerge.

Some cognitive symptoms may be the deterioration of the judgment of time and memory and the fall into dementia. Concentration may become difficult, as the disease progresses, and the sufferer may have difficulty driving, keeping track of things, making decisions, answering questions and recognizing familiar objects.

There are many treatments for Huntington’s disease, but no actual cure. Once diagnosed sufferers are almost guaranteed to be completely physically and mentally dependant on everyone else, as it becomes a disability. There are many medications and therapies that may slow down the process or control the effects better, but no all-out cure has been discovered yet.

Some tranquilizers like clonazepam and anti-psychotic drugs like haloperidol and clozapine may ehlp to control the movements, outbursts and hallucinations, although a side-effect of these medications may be heavy sedation, and rigidity and stiffness.

Fluexotine, sertraline and nortripyline may help control the depression and OCD behaviour,and lithium may help with the mood swings, however fatigue, restlessness and hyper-activity are side-effects.

Speech therapy is suggested as Huntington’s disease effects speech, and the encouragement of those around a sufferer to treat them as they normally would is strongly suggested so they know that the victim can still think the same way, just cannot react the same way.

Occupational therapy is suggested as it helps make the home safer and helps the victims memory, and physical therapy keeps the joints and muscles flexible.

There is also an experimental treatment involving a certain cancer and AIDs drug combination, but is yet to be tested on humans and is not likely to be legalized any time soon.

Sufferers of HD are only expected to live 15 years after diagnosis, and it is a tragically effecting genetic disorder.


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