Huntington's disease is a genetic neurological disorder that causes the progressive breakdown of nerve cells in the brain. It typically manifests in a person's 30s or 40s with motor, cognitive, and psychiatric symptoms. The motor symptoms include involuntary writhing movements and problems with voluntary movement. Cognitive symptoms involve difficulties with tasks, flexibility, impulsivity, and processing speed. Common psychiatric issues are depression, OCD, mania, and bipolar disorder. The disease is caused by a loss of GABA and acetylcholine-producing neurons in the brain due to a defective gene. While there is no cure, treatments aim to support patients through diet, exercise, and psychosocial support.

1. By ; AMEER AZEEZ
09/02/2015

2. • Definition of HD
• Symptoms
• Causes
• Treatments
This presentation includes:

3. Definition of HD
Huntington's disease is an inherited disease that causes
the progressive breakdown (degeneration) of nerve cells
in the brain. Huntington's disease has a broad impact on
a person's functional abilities and usually results in
movement, thinking (cognitive) and psychiatric disorders.
The Disease was first recognized in 1872 when a 22-year-
old American doctor, George Huntington, wrote a paper
called On Chorea ("Chorea" comes from the Latin and
Greek words and it means dance )
HD usually begins in
the age of 30 to 40
years.

4. Symptoms of Huntington's disease
( Huntington’s chorea )
Huntington's disease usually causes
1.Movement disorders ‫اضطرابات‬‫في‬‫الحركة‬
2.Cognitive disorders ‫معرفيه‬ ‫اضطرابات‬
3.Psychiatric disorders ‫نفسيه‬ ‫اضطرابات‬

5. The Movement disorders
The movement disorders associated with Huntington's
disease can include both involuntary movements and
impairments in voluntary movements:
•Involuntary jerking or writhing movements (chorea)
•Muscle problems, such as rigidity or muscle
contracture (dystonia)
•Slow or abnormal eye movements
•Impaired gait, posture and balance
•Difficulty with the physical production of speech or
swallowing

6. Cognitive disorders ‫معرفيه‬ ‫اضطرابات‬
Cognitive impairments often associated with Huntington's
disease include
•Difficulty organizing, prioritizing or focusing on tasks
•Lack of flexibility or the tendency to get stuck on a thought,
behavior or action
•Lack of impulse control that can result in outbursts,
•Lack of awareness of one's own behaviors and abilities
•Slowness in processing thoughts or ''finding'' words
•Difficulty in learning new information

7. Psychiatric disorders ‫نفسيه‬ ‫اضطرابات‬
The most common psychiatric disorder associated with Huntington's
disease is depression. This isn't simply a reaction to receiving a
diagnosis of Huntington's disease. Instead, depression appears to
occur because of injury to the brain and subsequent changes in brain
function. Signs and symptoms may include:
•Feelings of irritability, sadness or apathy
•Social withdrawal
•Fatigue and loss of energy and Insomnia
•Frequent thoughts of death, dying or suicide

8. Other common psychiatric disorders include:
•Obsessive-compulsive disorder
•Mania, which can cause elevated mood, over
activity, impulsive behavior
•Bipolar disorder, or alternating episodes of
depression and mania
In addition to the above
symptoms, weight loss is
common in people with
Huntington's disease, especially
as the disease progresses.

10. Causes of Huntington's disease
*Huntington's disease involves in neurotransmitters
and it believed to be caused by :
loss of cell bodies of GABA-secreting neurons in the
caudate nucleus and putamen and acetylcholine-
secreting neurons in many parts of the brain./

11. Huntington's disease (HD) are neurodegenerative
disorders that involve disruptions in gamma-amino
butyric acid (GABA) signaling. GABA is the major
inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous
system (CNS)
. GABA-secreting neurons are normally inhibit the
globus pallidus and substantia nigra The loss of
inhibition allows spontaneous outbursts of
excitatory activity that lead to involuntary muscle
contraction and body distortions

12. Huntington's disease Resulting
from Damage to the Basal Ganglia

13. •The dementia in Huntington's disease probably
does not result from the loss of GABA neurons
•but from the loss of acetylcholine-secreting
neurons, perhaps especially in the thinking areas of
the cerebral cortex.
dementia in Huntington's disease
•Emotional changes
•Depression ‫كآبه‬
•Mania ‫الهوس‬
•Lack of
Manners‫حميدة‬ ‫عادات‬
•Extreme eccentricity
‫شديد‬ ‫انحراف‬
•Obsessive-compulsive
Symptoms ‫القهري‬ ‫الوسواس‬

14. Treatment for Huntington's Disease
The emphasis today is on living positively with
Huntington's Disease. An integrated, multi-disciplinary
approach focuses on the triad of:
•diet and supplements‫الغذائية‬ ‫والمكمالت‬ ‫الغذائي‬ ‫النظام‬
•exercise
•spiritual and psychosocial support‫والنفسي‬ ‫الروحي‬ ‫الدعم‬

15. thank you for your attention