Scottish
Huntingtons
Association Illustrated
Pages
Frequently
Asked Questions
What are HD Symptoms
Symptoms usually evolve slowly and vary from person to person, even within the
same family. Some
individuals may be affected first cognitively (depression, forgetfulness,
impaired judgment). Others suffer
with motor skill impairment (dystonia or involuntary
movements, unsteady gait). Eventually, every person
afflicted by HD requires full-time care.
Domains
affected include: cognitive, motor and behavioral. Members of the same family
may exhibit different
symptoms. Some can show mild involuntary movements (chorea) and have more
emotional/behavioral
symptoms of HD or can have less emotional/behavioral symptoms with more
difficulty with involuntary
movements.
The early symptoms of HD can include:
Nervous
activity like fidgeting, minor twitching in fingers and toes;
- Some clumsiness
- Excessive restlessness
- Slight alterations in
handwriting
- Minor difficulty with
normal daily physical skills like driving.
Apart
from the physical symptoms of HD, there are often very subtle intellectual or
emotional signs as well, such as:
- Short-term memory loss;
- Less ability to organise
routine tasks or to cope with new situations;
- Periods of depression,
apathy and irritability and mpulsiveness.
If
a person has emotional outbursts, does something clumsy or forgets a task it is
not necessarily a sign that they have HD. These things can be
just as easily experienced by a person who does not have the defective gene at
all.
Advanced Symptoms
As
HD progresses the early physical, intellectual and emotional symptoms become
more marked. In many cases the person with HD will develop
involuntary movements like jerks and twitches of the head, neck, arms and legs.
Sometimes, people with HD will develop rigid muscles instead of
involuntary movement. All of these physical symptoms can make walking, speech,
swallowing and other basic tasks more difficult as the
disease progresses.
Scottish Huntingtons
Association,
Thistle House, 61
Main Road,
Elderslie, PA5 9BA,
Tel; 01505 322245,
email: sha-admin@hdscotland.org.uk
The Scottish Huntington's Association is
a Registered Charity: No 121496.