The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' Movement Disorders Clinic in Little Rock has started a monthly clinic for Huntington's disease patients.
The clinic's team includes movement disorder neurologists, nurses and nurse practitioners with expertise in Huntington's disease, as well as social workers, nutritionists, and speech and physical therapists. The clinic also makes referrals to neuropsychologists, psychiatrists and genetic counselors.
Huntington's disease is an inherited neurological condition that slowly causes a breakdown among the nerve cells in the brain, which affects movement, thinking and a person's mental state.
About 30,000 people in the United States and between 150 and 200 in Arkansas have the disease.
In addition to the work that medical professionals do at the clinic, they can connect patients with genetic testing and counseling. Each child of a parent with Huntington's disease has a 50 percent chance of inheriting it.
One of the most famous people who had Huntington's was Woody Guthrie, a folk singer who died from complications of the disease at age 55 in 1967. His mother had the disease, as did two of three children from his first marriage.
Almost every state has at least one multidisciplinary clinic, center or partnership to help patients with Huntington's disease, according to the Huntington's Disease Society of America.
Metro on 06/11/2018