Huntington Disease Case Studies

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Huntington Disease Huntington disease is a psychological disorder. It is characterized by cognitive , skeletal and psychiatric inadequacies. Skeletal incapabilities will bring about voluntary and involuntary actions. Voluntary means doing something off your own free will example flexing the knee, muscle contraction/dystonia inability to move the eye. problems with the individuals cerebellum which is responsible for these actions in humans. Also there will be impaired speech/swallowing. The individual life may be hampered because of these inadequacies. This reduces to do daily activities and maintain their dependency. Huntington disease may affect the cognitive skills of an individual. May organize the person’s chain of thought. …show more content…

It is an autosomal dominant disorder, the individual need only one copy of the defective gene for the disorder to develop. A child born inherits two copies of every gene, one from each parent. So there is a fifty percent 50% chance of the child in the family getting a defective copy from the parent. Essentially there is a high chance (50%) of the each child in the family getting the trait of Huntington’s disease. Huntington disease life expectancy is very low; affected individual functional abilities worsen over time. The life expectancy time frame is usually 10-30 years. All depending on treatment, lifestyle and diet of patient. Persons with the disease may need assistance with activity of daily living and the person may develop suicidal thoughts .Pneumonia injuries to fall , inability to swallow are all features of …show more content…

There will be a thorough review of family history, neurological examining. The doctor will perform tests to check for balance, coordination, muscle tone, muscle strength, reflexes .These collectively called motor symptoms. He will check for sense of touch, vision and eye movement, hearing; called sensory symptoms. And he will check for mood swings and mental status which are psychiatric symptoms. The neuropsychological testing may involve: mental agility, reasoning, memory, spatial reasoning, and language function. A specialist in the field named a psychiatrist may examine the patient: coping skills, use of substance, pattern of behavior and emotional

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