Understanding the Symptoms of Huntington Disease
There are a number of inherited diseases that may cause a breakdown of the cells in the body, in a progressive manner. This leads to a slowdown of many functions and a variety of symptoms as well. Huntington Disease is one of them, which causes a gradual degeneration of the nerve cells of the body. The symptoms that come from such degeneration include a number of issues like slow mobility, psychiatric issues, and even cognitive development problems. Let us find out more about Huntington Disease and its symptoms.
To understand the symptoms in a better manner, you first need to understand that the various side effects and symptoms may not occur all at once.
Movement-Related Symptoms
Some of the major symptoms of Huntington’s Disease have to do with the movement and mobility of the patient. In many cases, it has been seen that the degeneration of the nerve cells leads to many changes in the makeup as well as the functioning of the muscles and the joints.
Also, these kinds of involuntary twitches and jerks can lead to problems in posture and gait or the way a person carries his or her frame. The patient may also experience rigidity in the muscles and stiffness in the joints along with eye movement problems, issues in chewing and swallowing and other related movements. Due to this, the patient might face problems in running in a normal manner. Physiotherapy on a routine basis is the solution for such cases.
Cognitive Problems
There are a number of nerves in the brain which might get affected when a person is suffering from a degenerative disease of the nerve cells like Huntington Disease. This will create various symptoms when it comes to one’s cognition and mental capacity as well. The patient may be left grappling for the right words at the right time and may even have difficulties when it comes to processing simple facts in terms of bills, the time required for certain activities, so on and so forth.
These kinds of symptoms might occur because the nerves may not be able to parlay the signals of the brain to the other parts of the body in a timely manner. When we speak about the cognitive symptoms of Huntington Disease, we find that these have a bearing on the behavior of the patient as well. The patient may not be very flexible especially when it comes to long-term and short-term changes and other matters that require adaptability. At the same time, the patient may not be aware of the things he or she is doing, or the kind of behavior that he or she might be indulging in. New information will also be a challenge for such patients to pick up and process.
Psychiatric Symptoms
Depression is one of the most common symptoms that one may encounter while suffering from Huntington’s Disease. A feeling of helplessness and desperation may wash over the patient on a routine basis, which may push him or her into depression. This can happen due to an alteration in the play of chemicals and hormones due to the degeneration of the nerve cells. For many patients, in some extreme cases, the depression may also snowball into bipolar disorder where the patient may swing between extreme mania and extreme depression which can be a Huntington’s disease symptoms. These mood swings can lead to many problems and changes in one’s behavior as well. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is also one of the symptoms of Huntington’s disease, where the patient will be obsessed with a certain kind of repetitive behavior. For these kinds of issues and symptoms of Huntington’s disease, one will necessarily have to go through many sessions of counseling with a trained psychiatrist.
