Cognitive and psychiatric disturbances are common manifestations of the neurodegeneration that occurs in Huntington's chorea. These may be the initial presenting features of the disorder.
Cognitive changes:
(1) subcortical dementia with impaired executive functioning (planning, organizing, judging, etc)
(2) impaired working memory (forgetfulness) with preserved long-term memory
(3) disordered sleep
(4) loss of concentration
(5) inflexibility (fixed thoughts)
(6) anosognosia (lack of awareness of defects)
where:
• Lesions in the caudate nucleus disconnect the frontal cortex and result in the deterioration in executive functioning.
Psychiatric changes:
(1) personality change
(2) anxiety
(3) depression (with tendency to suicide)
(4) mania
(5) psychosis
(6) irritability and aggression
(7) disinhibition
(8) agitation
(9) loss of interest and apathy
To read more or access our algorithms and calculators, please log in or register.
Specialty: Genetics, Neurology
