Motor Symptoms

The motor changes associated with Huntington’s disease

Introduction

Huntington’s disease (HD), an inherited neurodegenerative disorder, damages specific areas of the brain, resulting in movement difficulties as well as cognitive and behavioral changes. HD is often characterized by the motor symptoms that it causes. In fact, when HD was first discovered it was called Huntington’s chorea, as a reference to the uncontrollable, dance-like movement that is common among people with HD. Motor symptoms, though not always the first symptoms to appear, are often the reason that people with HD first see a doctor. Before genetic testing for the expanded CAG repeat within the Huntington gene became available, doctors could only make diagnoses according to motor symptoms. Even today, these symptoms are an important part of the criteria for clinical diagnosis; they generally define the age of onset of HD in an individual.

• What are the motor symptoms that occur with HD?
• What exactly is chorea?
• How can motor symptoms be treated?
• What causes motor symptoms?
• Treatment with Tetrabenazine (TBZ)
• How does TBZ work?
• What research has been done on TBZ?
• What are the possible side effects of TBZ?
• When will TBZ be available in the US?

Click here to return to the The Diagnosis of Huntington's Disease page.

Last Modified: 04/12/2007

An educational product of HOPES, not to be used in place of medical care. For more information about HOPES, click on the Logo. To contact HOPES with comments or questions, click here.