Huntington’s disease results in the brain nerve cells’ progressive degeneration or breakdown. It is a hereditary disease and adversely affects your functional abilities. Psychiatric, cognitive and movement disorders can be associated with this disease. The symptoms of this disease normally develop in the 30s or 40s of the life of an individual. If you develop this disease prior to 20 years of age, it is known as juvenile Huntington’s disease.

Major symptoms
In addition to psychiatric, cognitive and movement disorders, this disease has many other symptoms. The first symptom that manifests depends on the unique condition of the affected person. As the disease progresses, certain disorders become more dominant and they create more impact on the functional ability.

Movement disorders
When it comes to movement disorders, there are two types of problems and they include voluntary movement impairments and involuntary movement issues. Some of the most prominent disorders under these categories are muscle problems like dystonia or muscle rigidity, unusual eye movements, impaired balance, posture and gait, speech production or swallowing related difficulty, chorea and involuntary impairments that make it really difficult for a person to perform daily activities and communicate.

Cognitive disorders
The most common cognitive impairment problem connected with this disease is the difficulty of focusing on tasks, organizing and prioritizing. The affected people often lose the flexibility to get stuck on a thought and they also lose the natural tendency to focus on an action. Sexual promiscuity is another cognitive disorder and the patients lose the control over the impulses that lead to outbursts. These people are not aware of their own abilities and behaviors and they often find it extremely hard to learn new information. Another cognitive disorder that affected people experience is the slowness in processing thoughts.

Psychiatric disorders
Depression is the most dominant psychiatric issue that can be linked with Huntington’s disease. Brain injury and the resultant changes are the major causes of depression. Other symptoms related to psychiatric disorders are insomnia, irritability, bipolar disorder, apathy, loss of energy, social withdrawal and recurring thoughts about suicide and death. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is also a leading symptom and the patients always have inflated self-esteem. Weight loss can be found in a good number of patients as well.

What are signs of juvenile Huntington’s disease?
The symptoms of this disease in younger people have slight variations from that of adults. The most dominant symptoms are physical changes, behavioral problems, fast, a considerable drop in academic performance, becoming unaware of early learned physical skills, contracted and rigid muscles, seizures, drastic changes in motor skills and tremors.

What are the major causes of Huntington’s disease?
The major reason behind the occurrence of this disease is a hereditary defect in a single gene. It is a kind of autosomal dominant disorder. For developing this disorder, you just need one copy of the defective gene. Apart from the sex chromosome genes, every person inherits two copies of all genes. It means the child inherits one copy from the father and mother. A parent suffering from this disease could pass on a healthy copy or defective cop to his/her son or daughter. So 50% chances can be associated with every child in the family. In other words, the child always stands in with a chance of 50% of inheriting the gene which results in this genetic disorder.

What are the most prominent complications of Huntington’s disease?
Once a person becomes vulnerable to this disease, they have to face a lot of complications. The functional abilities deteriorate in a gradual manner. The rate in which disease progresses vary and there can be a difference in the duration from person to person. The time frame between the emergence of the disease and death can be in between 10 and 30 years. As far as Juvenile Huntington’s disease is concerned, the death occurs within 10 years after the development of the symptoms.

The risk of suicide
The clinical depression linked with this disease can decrease or increase the suicide risk. Various studies reveal that the risk of suicide is higher during the phase before the diagnosis compared to the middle phases of the disease where the affected has started losing independence.

The affected individual cannot live independently. The patient requires assistance for all activities including daily survival. When the individual reaches the later stages of the disease, they will most probably be restricted to a bed and the speaking ability also vanishes. Nevertheless, the patient does not lose the ability to understand the language and the identification of the family members and close friends will also remain. The most prominent reasons for death are the problems associated with the incapability to swallow and infections such as pneumonia and, the injuries associated with falls can also lead to death.