I am joined in this episode by neurologist Thomas Bird to discuss his long professional experience of managing Huntington’s disease.
Thomas Bird is Professor Emeritus of Neurology and Medical Genetics at the University of Washington in Seattle. He was previously Chief of Neurology at the Seattle VA Medical Center, and founder of the Neurogenetics Clinic at the University of Washington. He was also former director of the Huntington’s disease Centre at University of Washington
We discussed the diverse manifestations of the disease, from chorea to impaired judgement to psychosis. With anecdotes from the book, we also reviewed the links between the disease and criminality, and with increased socioeconomic vulnerability and trauma. Dr Bird also highlighted the unusual manifestations of the disease in children, the similarity of the pathogenesis to other neurodegenerative diseases such as motor neurone disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
Our discussion also covered the genetic testing of the disease, particularly highlighting the ethical conundrums leading up to the testing, and the uncertainties that the test result throws up. Other themes we covered are the therapeutic and preventative prospects for Huntington’s disease, and the need for society to understand and support people with the disease.
Watch it on YouTube:https://youtu.be/xmq6aylMO3k
Listen to it on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/episode/3p25EQjYOtJDrIQkH25iPx
Listen to it on RSS feedhttps://rss.com/podcasts/theneurologylounge/1745149/
Listen to it on Apple podcastshttps://tinyurl.com/2s4c9f28
***
The Neurology Lounge 
