Huntington’s disease is a genetic disease which causes the breakdown (degeneration in brain cells). This makes a person unable to function normally, their thinking ability, movement, and even psyche get affected. The symptoms of this disease start showing around 30 to 40 years of age for most people. The symptoms can very well start early in a patient’s life. In that case, it’s called juvenile Huntington’s disease, which can start in the early 20s. Huntington’s disease treatment and medicines are available, but the medicines can only manage to control the symptoms, but the damage can’t be prevented.
Read Blog about Huntington’s disease to find out more.
The symptoms are divided into mainly three parts, cognitive, psychiatric and movement disorders.
Cognitive Disorder
This refers to the thinking and deciding capability of the patient. The patient becomes unable to focus on a task or think coherently. The patient becomes unable to control their own behavior and actions which leads to mental outbursts and problem in finding the right word to speak.
Movement Disorder
The jerk in the walk the muscle problems become a part of the life of the patient. This is not only limited to the walk but also posture, balance and even swallowing.
Psychiatric Disorders
The most commonly attached disorder with the disease is depression. The depression results from the degeneration of the cells of the brain and not the tension from the disease itself. The patient also feels irritated, sad, insomnia, fatigue, loss of energy, etc.
There is no medication to cure the disease, but there are treatments through which the onset of symptoms can be controlled. The patient can go to the counselors for help and try to lead an as normal life as he can, but when the disease evolved, there is no treatment to control it. The treatment has it’s own side effects, so there are other problems patients suffer from. It can be said that the treatment is just the use of medications to try to control the onset of the symptoms and providing a patient more time.
