BackgroundWe report the case of a 52-year-old male with pre-motor Huntington’s disease (HD) who has undergone detailed clinical and neuropsychological examination. This patient’s negative symptomatology and behavioural change are having a detrimental impact on his social, occupational and interpersonal life, in the absence of motor symptoms.MethodsThe patient has undergone repeat neuropsychological testing (T1 aged 50; T2 aged 52) with particular focus on executive function and social cognition on repeat testing.ResultsThis case details a specific manifestation of HD relating to behavioural, psychiatric and social affective deficits.ConclusionsThis case illustrates how social cognitive changes can occur in HD, months and even years prior to the onset of motor features and how such unrecognized deficits can have a deleterious impact on an individual’s functional ability and lifestyle, before the disease is traditionally considered to have become manifest.
Early Dysfunction of Neural Transmission and Cognitive Processing in Huntington’s Disease