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Huntington’s Disease

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Movement Disorders Rehabilitation

Abstract

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a genetic neurodegenerative disease with autosomal dominant inheritance characterized by progressive motor, cognitive, and behavior impairments. Although chorea is the main type of involuntary movement and is usually present in any phase of the disease, other motor impairments appear, such as dystonia, bradykinesia, rigidity, and balance disturbances, and all contribute to disabilities and poor functional performance. HD-related cognitive deficits also make it difficult to implement reabilitation programs for these patients. Many pharmacological therapies have been evaluated; however, positive pharmacological results are still scanty; thus, few treatments options are available. Death occurs after 15–20 years of disease, usually because of trauma related to falls or infections related to dysphagia. Therefore, physical therapy and phonotherapy are extremely important to avoid these events and to improve the quality of life of patients and caregivers. This chapter reviews the main strategies in physical and speech therapy that can improve the performance of HD patients and discuss programs focused on this special population.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Hospital das Clinicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Monica Santoro Haddad M.D., M.Sc.

  2. Department of Physical Therapy, Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Tamine Teixeira da Costa Capato P.T., M.Sc.

  3. Department of Neurology, Hospital das Clinicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Mariana Jardim Azambuja S.L.P., M.Sc.

Authors
  1. Monica Santoro Haddad M.D., M.Sc.
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  2. Tamine Teixeira da Costa Capato P.T., M.Sc.
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  3. Mariana Jardim Azambuja S.L.P., M.Sc.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Monica Santoro Haddad M.D., M.Sc. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Hsin Fen Chien

  2. Department of Neurology, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Orlando Graziani Povoas Barsottini

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Haddad, M.S., da Costa Capato, T.T., Azambuja, M.J. (2017). Huntington’s Disease. In: Chien, H., Barsottini, O. (eds) Movement Disorders Rehabilitation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46062-8_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46062-8_8

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