Huntington's disease is an inherited degenerative brain disorder that leads to a progressive decline in movement and thinking functions, along with mental health disturbances. Disease symptoms typically begin in middle adulthood. Treatment focuses on minimizing disease symptoms to facilitate comfort and enhance quality of life. Because treatment does not alter the course of the illness, the effects of Huntington's disease grow more numerous and severe with time.
Tics and Chorea
The movement and muscular control problems associated with Huntington's disease often begin as tics or twitches. Facial muscle involvement manifests as sudden grimacing and other unusual involuntary expressions. Twitching and tics contribute to clumsiness and balance problems, notes MayoClinic.com.
With disease progression, tics characteristically give way to chorea--abrupt, brief, irregular jerky movements. As chorea becomes more prominent, balance disturbances increase in severity. Coordination of voluntary movement is also increasingly compromised. Anxiety and emotional upset can aggravate chorea symptoms.
Personality Changes
Personality changes are a characteristic symptom of Huntington's disease. Although the types of personality changes vary, common manifestations include loss of interest in usual activities, social withdrawal, obsessiveness, high levels of anger and anxiety, impulsiveness, irritability, apathy and depression. The University of Utah Genetic Science Learning Center reports that psychiatric medications can be helpful in controlling anxiety and depression associated with Huntington's disease.
Impaired Cognitive Function
Loss of nerve cells in the brain with Huntington's disease causes the progressive loss of higher mental functions, also known as cognitive functions. Early in the disease, mental slowing occurs, with an increased level of effort required to think through a process or task that had once been routine. Multitasking typically proves impossible. Short-term-memory deficits manifest as forgetfulness and difficulty understanding and retaining new information. Poor judgment and difficulty making decisions often occur, notes the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
In late stage Huntington's disease, full-blown dementia typically occurs. Loved ones often go unrecognized, and higher cognitive functions such as abstraction, planning, organizing, judgment and contemplation regress to a basic level.
Speech Disturbances
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association explains that the capacity for spoken communication progressively deteriorates with Huntington's disease. Muscular incoordination disrupts the physical production of language. Cognitive disturbances affect the intellectual aspects of speech, such as word selection, the capacity to follow conversation and coherent responsiveness. Difficulties comprehending the written word also characteristically occur as Huntington's disease progresses.
Swallowing Difficulties
Declining coordination and chorea compromise the ability to chew and swallow food without choking. People in the late stages of Huntington's disease have difficulty keeping food in their mouth during chewing. Difficulty initiating swallowing also proves common. Swallowing is frequently incomplete, with food or liquid left in the mouth that may cause choking due to a reduced ability to coordinate breathing and swallowing.
References
- MayoClinic.com: Huntington's Disease
- The University of Utah Genetic Science Learning Center: Huntington's Disease
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: Huntington's Disease
- American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: Huntington's Disease
- Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals: Huntington's Disease
