Modifying Neuropsychiatric and Motor Trajectories in Huntington's Disease Through an Integrated Neurobehavioral...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Clinical Neurology
• Psychiatry

Background:

• Huntington's disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with significant motor, cognitive, and psychiatric symptoms.
• Psychiatric symptoms often precede motor deficits and contribute substantially to patient disability.
• Current HD management focuses on symptom control and functional preservation due to a lack of disease-modifying treatments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of implementing a multidisciplinary clinic model on clinical outcomes in Huntington's disease patients.
• To compare longitudinal changes in motor, cognitive, and psychiatric symptoms before and after the introduction of integrated care.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective pre-post chart review of 56 Huntington's disease patients.
• Utilized paired-samples t-tests to analyze differences in outcomes.
• Assessed depressive symptoms (PHQ-9), anxiety symptoms (GAD-7), motor function (UHDRS), and cognitive function (MoCA).

Main Results:

• The multidisciplinary clinic model led to increased stability in depression and anxiety symptom trajectories.
• A higher percentage of patients responded to treatment post-clinic implementation (64-67%) compared to pre-clinic (33-43%).
• Significant decrease in motor symptom severity (d = -0.341) and stable cognitive performance were observed.

Conclusions:

• Multidisciplinary integrated care may positively influence motor and psychiatric symptom trajectories in Huntington's disease.
• A coordinated, team-based approach represents a clinically meaningful deviation from the expected progressive decline in HD.
• The study's findings are limited by its retrospective observational design and modest sample size.