Huntington’s is a rare, inherited, degenerative brain nerve disease. It has a large impact on an individuals quality of life, in that it causes issues with functional abilities, causing movement, thinking, and psychiatric disorders. Unfortunately, there is no cure for the disease, but there are options to help with symptom management, including prescriptions of Austedo or Deutetrabenazine ad treatment medications. In order to help manage the disease, the sooner symptoms are noticed, the better. Here are 5 symptoms of Huntington’s disease:

1. Change in mood
Due to the disease’s impact on brain function, changes in mood are a common symptom of Huntington’s. The patient may experience emotions and mood swings that are abnormal to their regular behavior, including apathy, irritability, angriness, depression, feelings of hopelessness, and so on. It is valuable to have a reliable, trusted, and supportive individual helping the Huntington’s patient through such mood swings and issues, as psychiatric disorders can develop—it’s important to get the help that is required.

2. Uncontrolled movements
Huntington’s attacks the area of the brain that controls voluntary movement. As such, people living with the disease experience what’s known as chorea, where they develop uncontrollable movements (writhin, jerking movements). Other movement disorders associated with the disease include impaired gait, abnormal body postures, muscle rigidity, and more.

3. Decline in thinking and reasoning skills
Early on in the disease, this symptom may show up through memory and learning difficulties, impaired judgements, trouble answering questions, and issues with decision making. Later on, concentration and focus become increasingly difficult.

4. Stumbling and clumsiness
As with uncontrolled movements, abnormal posture, and impaired gait, Huntington’s also causes issues with balance. If you or a loved one is seeming more clumsy than usual or frequently stumbling, you should speak to a doctor.

5. Memory lapses
It depends on the individual, but those with Huntington’s often have no problem remembering recent events, but they often forget or have difficulty with procedural memory, or remembering how to do certain things.

As a key takeaway, be sure to look for symptoms such as a change in mood, uncontrolled or impaired movements, decline in cognitive skills, stumbling and clumsiness, and memory lapses. If you notice any or all of these symptoms in yourself or a loved one, it is essential to speak to a medical professional in order to receive a diagnosis and begin treatments to help with symptom management.