Neuropsychiatry - Huntington Disease

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Dr. O'Leary reviews one of the most frustrating diseases that a patient and their family might approach a psychiatrist with: Huntington’s Disease. Huntington’s Disease is a neurodegenerative disorder, which means that over the course of the disease neurons die or cease to function correctly and this worsens over time. The death of neurons in the caudate nucleus and putamen results in choreiform or dance-like movements of the extremities which earned it the moniker “Huntington’s Chorea." Huntington's Disease can result in many psychiatric symptoms and these may start to occur during the prodromal stage before the choreiform movements develop. Sleep disturbances, apathy, executive dysfunction, memory impairment, personality change, irritability and aggression, disinhibition and impulsivity (including hyper-sexuality), depression, mania, delusions, paranoia and other psychotic symptoms, obsessions and compulsions, and most prominently a high risk of suicide.

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