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Irritability in Huntington's disease

Nanda Reedeker1, Jos A Bouwens, Erik J Giltay

  • 1Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Centre, The Netherlands.

Psychiatry Research
|April 28, 2012
PubMed

Insights

Irritability is common in Huntington's disease (HD). The Irritability Scale (IS) reliably identifies irritability in HD patients with a score of 14 or higher, aiding clinical assessment.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Genetics
  • Psychiatry

Background:

  • Irritability is a frequent neuropsychiatric symptom in Huntington's disease (HD).
  • Accurate assessment of irritability is crucial for managing HD patients.
  • Existing assessment tools require validation in the HD population.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To validate the Irritability Scale (IS) for assessing irritability in Huntington's disease (HD).
  • To establish a reliable cut-off score for the IS in HD patients.
  • To identify correlates of irritability in individuals with HD.

Main Methods:

  • The Irritability Scale (IS) and Problem Behaviours Assessment (PBA) irritability factor were administered to 130 HD mutation carriers and 43 non-carriers.
  • Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to determine the optimal IS cut-off score.
  • Univariate and multivariate regression analyses identified correlates of irritability.

Main Results:

  • A robust IS cut-off score of ≥14 reliably identified irritability in HD patients (35% vs. 9% in non-carriers, P=0.001).
  • Moderate agreement was observed between self-report and informant-report IS scores (intraclass correlation=0.61).
  • Independent correlates of irritability included being married/living together, CAG repeat length, and benzodiazepine use.

Conclusions:

  • The Irritability Scale (IS) is a reliable tool for assessing irritability in Huntington's disease (HD) with a cut-off score of ≥14.
  • Benzodiazepine use is a significant correlate of irritability in HD, warranting clinical attention.
  • Further research is needed to clarify the relationship between benzodiazepine use and irritability in HD.

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