Symptoms of Huntington's Disease
Symptoms of Huntington's Disease
The list of signs and symptoms mentioned in various sources
for Huntington's Disease includes the 42
symptoms listed below:
Research symptoms & diagnosis of Huntington's Disease:
Huntington's Disease: Complications
Review medical complications possibly associated with Huntington's Disease:
Huntington's Disease Symptoms: Book Excerpts
Diagnostic Testing
Diagnostic testing of medical conditions related to Huntington's Disease:
Research More About Huntington's Disease
Do I have Huntington's Disease?
Huntington's Disease: Undiagnosed Conditions
Diseases that may be commonly undiagnosed in related medical areas:
Home Diagnostic Testing
Home medical tests related to Huntington's Disease:
- Nerve Neuropathy: Related Home Testing:
- Brain & Neurological Disorders: Related Home Testing:
- more home tests...»
Wrongly Diagnosed with Huntington's Disease?
The list of other diseases or medical conditions
that may be on the differential diagnosis list of alternative diagnoses
for Huntington's Disease includes:
See the full list of 13
alternative diagnoses for Huntington's Disease
Huntington's Disease: Research Doctors & Specialists
- Nerve Specialists:
- Neurology (Brain/CNS Specialists):
- Stroke & Vascular Specialists:
- more specialists...»
Research all specialists including ratings, affiliations, and sanctions.
More about symptoms of Huntington's Disease:
More information about symptoms of Huntington's Disease and related conditions:
Other Possible Causes of these Symptoms
Click on any of the symptoms below to see a full list
of other causes including diseases, medical conditions, toxins, drug interactions,
or drug side effect causes of that symptom.
Medical Books Online about Huntington's Disease
Medical Books Excerpts
Excerpts of published medical book chapters related to Huntington's Disease
are available from published medical books
for more detailed information about Huntington's Disease.
Medical Books Excerpts
- Chorea
- "In a Page: Signs and Symptoms" (2004)
- [ read ]
- Chorea
- "In A Page: Pediatric Signs and Symptoms" (2007)
- [ read ]
- CHOREA
- "Differential Diagnosis in Primary Care" (2007)
- [ read ]
- Chorea
- "Signs & Symptoms: A 2-in-1 Reference for Nurses" (2007)
- [ read ]
- CHOREA
- "Differential Diagnosis in Primary Care" (2007)
- [ read ]
Copyright notice for book excerpts: Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.
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Symptoms of Huntington's Disease: Online Medical Books
16 MEDICAL BOOKS ONLINE!
Review excerpts from medical books online, free, without registration,
for more information about the symptoms of Huntington's Disease.
Huntington's disease:
Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))
Onset is insidious. The patient eventually becomes totally dependent — emotionally and physically — through loss of musculoskeletal control, and he develops progressively severe choreic movements. Such movements are rapid, usually violent, and purposeless. Initially, they’re unilateral and more prominent in the face and arms than in the legs, progressing from mild fidgeting to grimacing, tongue smacking, dysarthria (indistinct speech), athetoid movements (especially of the hands) related to emotional state, and torticollis.
Ultimately, the patient with Huntington’s disease develops progressive dementia, although the dementia doesn’t always progress at the same rate as the chorea. Dementia can be mild at first, but eventually causes severe disruption of the personality. Personality changes include obstinacy, carelessness, untidiness, moodiness, apathy, inappropriate behavior, loss of memory and concentration and, occasionally, paranoia.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005
Huntington's disease:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
The onset of this disease is insidious. The patient eventually becomes totally dependent — emotionally and physically — through loss of musculoskeletal control.
Clinical tip Although Huntington’s disease is associated with some types of psychiatric illness, it has a clinically different presentation and cause.
Neurologic manifestations
Gradually, the patient develops progressively severe choreic movements. Such movements are rapid, usually violent, and purposeless. Initially, they’re unilateral and more prominent in the face and arms than in the legs, progressing from mild fidgeting to grimacing, tongue smacking, dysarthria (indistinct speech), athetoid movements (slow, twisting muscle contractions, especially of the hands) related to emotional state, and torticollis (neck muscle contractions).
Bradykinesia (slow movements) is commonly accompanied by rigidity. Muscle strength is generally maintained. The combination of chorea, bradykinesia, and normal muscle strength results in impairment of both voluntary and involuntary movement.
Another neurologic manifestation is dysphagia, which is seen in a large percentage of patients in the advanced stages. Dysarthria generally presents early in the disease process and may be complicated by perseveration (persistent repetition of a reply), oral apraxia (difficulty coordinating movement of the mouth), and aprosody (inability to accurately reproduce or interpret the tone of language).
Cognitive manifestations
Dementia is an early indication of the disease and is subcortical in nature. Unlike patients with Alzheimer’s disease, patients with Huntington’s disease have no significant impairment of immediate memory. When problems with recent memory occur, they may be due to retrieval rather than encoding problems. Comprehension of information is preserved. Because the disease primarily affects the frontal lobes, deficits of executive function (planning, organizing, regulating, and programming) are common. Impulse control is also impaired, whereas insight into loss of cognitive function is retained.
Psychiatric manifestations
Psychiatric symptoms may precede movement alteration by several years. Depression is the earliest symptom. Other common personality changes include irritability, lability, impulsiveness, and aggressive behavior. Depression may also have a manic component. Psychosis and obsessive-compulsive behavior aren’t common.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Article Excerpts About Symptoms of Huntington's Disease:
Some early symptoms of HD are mood swings, depression,
irritability or trouble driving, learning new things, remembering a fact,
or making a decision. As the disease progresses, concentration on
intellectual tasks becomes increasingly difficult and the patient may have
difficulty feeding himself or herself and swallowing. The rate of disease
progression and the age of onset vary from person to person.
(Source: excerpt from NINDS Huntington's Disease Information Page: NINDS)
Huntington's Disease as a Cause of Symptoms or Medical Conditions
When considering symptoms of Huntington's Disease, it is also important to consider Huntington's Disease as a possible cause of other medical conditions.
The Disease Database lists the following medical conditions that Huntington's Disease may cause:
- (Source - Diseases Database)
Huntington's Disease as a symptom:
For a more detailed analysis of Huntington's Disease as a symptom, including causes, drug side effect causes, and drug interaction causes, please see our Symptom Center information for Huntington's Disease.
Medical articles and books on symptoms:
These general reference articles may be of interest
in relation to medical signs and symptoms of disease in general:
Full list of premium articles on symptoms and diagnosis
About signs and symptoms of Huntington's Disease:
The symptom information on this page
attempts to provide a list of some possible signs and symptoms of Huntington's Disease.
This signs and symptoms information for Huntington's Disease has been gathered from various sources,
may not be fully accurate,
and may not be the full list of Huntington's Disease signs or Huntington's Disease symptoms.
Furthermore, signs and symptoms of Huntington's Disease may vary on an individual basis for each patient.
Only your doctor can provide adequate diagnosis of any signs or symptoms and whether they
are indeed Huntington's Disease symptoms.
"I authorize the release of any medical or other information necessary to process this claim." Do you recognize these words? You should, if...
Whenever you go to a hospital or clinic for a major procedure or diagnostic test, one of the many forms you are given to sign is an "informed...
Germs are a fact of life and catching an infectious disease like a cold may seem inevitable. But there are simple ways to protect yourself against...
Stress takes its toll by making us anxious, depressed and not able to function as fully as we'd like. What many don't know is that stress can...
See full list of 4 related videos
» Next page: Diagnostic Tests for Huntington's Disease
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