Yes, aggression, including verbal and physical violence, is a common symptom in Huntington's disease (HD) due to brain changes, but it's a symptom, not the person's fault, often arising from irritability, frustration, or cognitive impairment, and not everyone with HD becomes violent. These outbursts, sometimes triggered by minor things, are involuntary reactions, not premeditated acts, and can be managed with understanding, patience, and specific strategies like environmental adjustments and sometimes medication.
The most recent and largest retrospective study from 2021 included a chart review of 289 patients with HD and found that 11% had unlawful behavior, of which physical violence was the most common offense.
At this stage, a person with Huntington's is no longer able to do their own personal care and domestic responsibilities, and will have difficulty with mobility, needing to be in a chair or bed most of the time. Swallowing may be difficult and there may be significant weight loss.
How can we help the person affected?
Huntington's disease impairs the functioning of the brain, which can result in apathy, trouble organizing, impulsivity, irritability and anger, unawareness, disinhibition, preservation, and other psychiatric symptoms. These emotional and behavioral symptoms can further complicate the caregiver's role.
Intermittent explosive disorder involves repeated, sudden bouts of impulsive, aggressive, violent behavior or angry verbal outbursts. The reactions are too extreme for the situation. Road rage, domestic abuse, throwing or breaking objects, or other temper tantrums may be symptoms of intermittent explosive disorder.
Mental health conditions
The most common mental health condition associated with Huntington's disease is depression. This isn't simply a reaction to receiving a diagnosis of Huntington's disease. Instead, depression appears to occur because of damage to the brain and changes in brain function.
Another meta-analysis reported that the average pain prevalence in HD was about 41%, ranging from 36 to 46% (Sprenger et al., 2019). Recently, a worldwide pain-HD investigation showed that in HD mutation carriers, 34% had pain intervention, 17% underwent painful conditions, and 13% were treated with analgesics.
While drug and alcohol abuse cannot cause Huntington's disease (HD), drugs and alcohol can worsen HD symptoms.
More people live alone with Huntington's disease than we think: in 2023, 38% of all people with Huntington's disease living in the community lived alone. This has increased from 2009 (see Figure 1). People registered with an urban GP practice or living in a more deprived area were slightly more likely to live alone.
The first symptoms of Huntington's disease tend to appear in your 30s or 40s and is normally fatal within two decades – opening the possibility that earlier treatment could prevent symptoms from ever emerging.
Stage V: (11 - 26 years from illness onset)
Requires major assistance in financial affairs, domestic responsibilities, and all activities of daily living. Full-time skilled nursing care is required.
The most common signs of Huntington's disease include:
Cognitive changes, including difficulty with focus, memory and decision-making. Slower processing of information. Trouble organizing or completing tasks. Mood swings or irritability.
Intermittent explosive disorder (IED) involves frequent episodes of impulsive anger that's out of proportion to the event that triggered it. These outbursts can result in physical harm to the person with IED, other people or animals. It's essential to seek medical treatment for IED as soon as possible.
The most common are: hypoactive sexual disorder (53–83% of patients), hyperactive sexual disorder (6–30%), erectile (48–74%) and ejaculatory dysfunctions (30–65%), lubrication problems (53–83%), and orgasmic dysfunction (35–78%). Huntington's Disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant inherited disorder.
The 1-2-3 drinking rule is a guideline for moderation: 1 drink per hour, no more than 2 drinks per occasion, and at least 3 alcohol-free days each week, helping to pace consumption and stay within safer limits. It emphasizes pacing alcohol intake with water and food, knowing standard drink sizes (12oz beer, 5oz wine, 1.5oz spirits), and avoiding daily drinking to reduce health risks, though some health guidance suggests even lower limits.
Alcohol-Linked Diseases
Huntington's disease is an inherited genetic condition that causes dementia. It causes a slow, progressive decline in a person's movement, memory, thinking and emotional state.
Huntington disease is an inherited, neurodegenerative disorder. If a parent has the condition, each child will have a 50% chance of developing the disease.
Balanced & Nutritious Diet
It means that along with eating your vegetables, meat and pastas, you can also have some chocolate and snacks along the way.
For the purpose of this fact sheet, the beginning of end-of-life in HD is determined as the stage when the person affected has little control over movement, is bedbound, unable to communicate, unable to eat and drink on his/her own and experiences severe chorea or extreme rigidity.
Most people with HD experience problems with thinking, behavior, and movements. Symptoms usually worsen over the course of 10 to 25 years and affect the ability to reason, walk, and talk. Early on, a person with HD or their friends and family may notice difficulties with planning, remembering, and staying on task.
Psychiatric disturbances that occur in individuals with HD include apathy, depression, irritability, aggression, obsessive-compulsive behaviors and psychosis [7, 8].
Medicines to control movement include tetrabenazine (Xenazine), deutetrabenazine (Austedo) and valbenazine (Ingrezza). They have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to suppress involuntary jerking and writhing movements, known as chorea. Chorea can happen as a result of Huntington's disease.