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Huntington's disease
Printer-friendly versionHuntington disease (HD) is an inherited brain disorder that causes cells in specific parts of the brain to die.
Huntington disease is a genetic disorder. About one in every 10,000 Canadians has HD, but HD touches one in every 1,000 whether at risk, as a caregiver, family member or friend. The HD gene is dominant, which means that each child born to a parent with Huntington disease has a 50% chance of sharing the same fate.
The symptoms of HD include:
- emotional turmoil (depression, apathy, obsessive behaviour)
- mental loss (inability to focus, think and recall, make decisions)
- physical deterioration (weight loss, involuntary movements, diminished coordination, inability to walk, talk, swallow)
The disease leads to complete incapacitation and, eventually, death.
A juvenile form of Huntington disease can occur in individuals as young as five years of age. When HD appears in someone under the age of 20 years, the illness is recognized as "juvenile Huntington disease". Juvenile HD is characterized by a movement disorder, which differs from that of affected adults.
Today, there are no treatments that will slow down or stop HD. But hope for a meaningful treatment has never been more real. In recent years, basic research has dramatically increased our knowledge of HD. Various promising treatment strategies are now in the drug discovery pipeline.