Huntington’s disease

A Neurological hereditary disease is Huntington’s disease; this isn’t curable as of now. Nerve cells of the brain are damaged causing loss in function areas in the brain, deterioration and degeneration. This largely affects the behaviour, cognition and movement. In 1872, Doctor George Huntington from America initially described it. This was named Huntington’s chorea then.
Women and men both are likely to get the condition of Huntington’s disease equally. In UK anything in between 8000 to 6500 people have this condition. Mostly inherited from parents and very few or no symptoms as of now. There are possibilities that this ignorant group of people carrying the disease may have children and passed it on to them as well. Huntington’s disease develops in children with in 20 years of age and can be very severe. This is mostly inherited from father.

Symptoms

Symptoms of Huntington’s differ from person to person and there is also no set pattern. Symptoms in few people start to show anytime between 20 to 30 years of age. The normal age wherein symptoms start are between 30 to 50 years, this progress and can get severe in the next 10 to 20 years leading to death. Being forgetful is one of the signs of Huntington’s and people who are aware that it prevails in the family can be in constant tension of developing this disease. They also keep looking for symptoms for the same. Symptoms are experienced at least 10 years before diagnosing Huntington’s. This is the case when people are unaware that it is hereditary. Initial signs like bizarre behaviour, mood swings and personality changes are ignored and unnoticed.
Movement:
Movements are affected by Huntington’s; the initial signs include jerking, fidgety or flicking movements in the body and limbs or mild movements in the face which can be uncontrollable. As these movement keep moving from a particular area to another resulting in stumbling. Movement in the eye can also get affected resulting in difficulty looking downwards, sideways or up. In later stages of the disease, these uncontrolled movements can be often extreme and frequent. Due to loss in control of diaphragm muscles and mouth muscles do not work together in co-ordination causing mess and frustration while eating. This can also lead to dropping or spilling the food. Swallowing can also be a common problem. Hence choking of drinks and food are common. Constant movement takes up extra energy from the body and also problems in food intake can make a person with Huntington’s underweight. People can also be very vulnerable to illness and infection.
Behaviour:
Behaviour is also affect by Huntington’s disease and these are some of the initial symptoms. Symptoms like anger, apathy, depression, excitement, anti social and aggression are common. Few also find orientation problem, memory lapses for short duration and low concentration. This can develop after or before movements are affected. Frustrated, depressed, irritable and stubborn are few more sign of Huntington’s. They can be misunderstood as they appear to be lazy and low initiative levels, but its not the case its just the symptoms that affect ones personality. They can also develop psychiatric problems like schizophrenia, mania and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). As the brain is getting damaged, few people refuse to accept seriousness of this condition.
Communication:
People with this condition can often experience difficulty in speech, cognition and communication. Articulation and speech can get difficult as the breathing gets impaired. They find difficulty in putting words together and slur. People with Huntington’s disease have strained relationship which can get stressful to other family members. It can get very disturbing to see the state of a family member deteriorate.
People with Huntington’s will require complete nursing care in their later stages. Death can occur only by secondary causes like infection, pneumonia and heart failure.