Psychiatric, genetic, and positron emission tomographic evaluation of persons at risk for Huntington's disease

Source: Arch Gen Psychiatry 1992 Feb;49(2):148-154.
Author: Baxter LR;Mazziotta JC;Pahl JJ;Grafton ST;George-Hyslop P;Haines JL;Gusella JF;Szuba MP;Selin CE;Guze BH
PubMed ID: 1532304

Abstract:
We examined chorea-free subjects at risk for Huntington's disease (n 3D 52) for lifetime psychiatric diagnoses, present mood, genetic marker status, and caudate glucose metabolic rates with positron emission tomography. Based on previous work, a caudate-ipsilateral hemisphere ratio less than 1.15 was defined as abnormal and predictive of Huntington's disease. None of three methods used to segregate subjects into groups more and less likely to develop Huntington's disease gave significant group rate differences for any formal psychiatric diagnoses. On present mood testing, however, subjective 'anger/hostility' was significantly higher in those likely, compared with those less likely, to develop Huntington's disease, as determined by all three methods