Huntington's Disease: Treatment, Procedure, Cost and Side Effects

Huntington’s disease is an inherited condition that causes a degeneration of the nervous system and affects many nerve cells in the brain. This condition causes impairment in the ability to think and perform day to day activities. If this is left unrecognized or untreated then it will lead to psychiatric disorders. The symptoms of this condition arrive gradually and at a later stage it becomes more dominant and affects the function ability of your body. The symptoms mainly include movement disorders such as involuntary jerking of the body and various muscle problems. This condition also gets in the way of your rational thinking. You may lack the ability to analyze what is around you and you might also lose awareness of your own or others behavioral activities. Gradually when this condition starts to deteriorate, it causes you with feelings of sadness, instability and even insomnia. If you are suffering from this condition then you might also become suicidal at a later stage. Other symptoms of this condition are obsessive compulsion disorders (OCD) about small things that make you feel agitated every now and then. Mood swings are a common symptom for Huntington’s disease. Gradually one can forget all the things that they have learned over the past years and also might face behavioral problems such as feeling threatened and becoming violent. Tremors and involuntary movements are also an indication that you are suffering from Huntington’s disease and it also affects your motor nerves, which result in problems carrying out day to day activities. With the onset of this disease, the affected individual’s expected life span is about ten to thirty years.

Initially the treatment procedure begins with tests such as brain imaging with computerized tomography (CT) scans. This helps us to provide with detailed images of the brain structures and show which parts of the brain are affected by the disease. The tests are also used to eliminate other conditions that are associated with you. Genetic counseling is one of the most important procedures of the treatment of Huntington’s disease. The counselor will ask questions related to the family tree whether anyone was also diagnosed with this condition. The genetic history will help the medical experts to execute a medical plan to which the treatment will be carried out. The individuals who are suffering from this condition are tested out with various drugs to see how they respond to the medications. The drugs have a fifty fifty chance to improve the condition as there are common side effects that it might lead the patient to be more suicidal. There are certain drugs that are used to suppress the involuntary movements that you experience and help you to improve your cognitive powers and help you to take control over your body. Psychotherapy is also performed to improve coping strategies and these sessions help you not to over think and facilitate proper communication with the patient and others.

The Huntington’s disease is a sensitive form of treatment. Therefore all the medications that are applied to a patient may or may not work. With the dosage of the medications, instead of eliminating the symptoms, one can worsen the symptoms as well. They might have increased suicidal tendencies and insomnia. Some drugs might also cause leg swelling and skin discoloration. Other side effects of this disease are muscle rigidity and sudden traumatic shocks which are involuntary in nature.

This condition requires a lot of tests and therapy procedures. The lab tests range from Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 45,000. The therapy sessions range from Rs. 7,000 to Rs. 15,000. The drugs range about Rs. 3,500 to Rs. 5,000.

The results of the treatment procedure depend from person to person. The results depend on the individuals as how they respond to the drugs that they are being prescribed with. However the results of the treatment are never permanent and even if the symptoms are suppressed and the patient is recovering, there is always a chance that a certain activity might trigger the trauma within the patients which will cause them to act abnormally again.