The personal experience of parenting a child with juvenile Huntington's disease: perceptions across Europe.

The study reported here presents a detailed description of what it is like to parent a child with juvenile Huntington's disease in families across four European countries. Its primary aim was to develop and extend findings from a previous UK study. The study recruited parents from four European countries: Holland, Italy, Poland and Sweden,. A secondary aim was to see the extent to which the findings from the UK study were repeated across Europe and the degree of commonality or divergence across the different countries. Fourteen parents who were the primary caregiver took part in a semistructured interview. These were analyzed using an established qualitative methodology, interpretative phenomenological analysis. Five analytic themes were derived from the analysis: the early signs of something wrong; parental understanding of juvenile Huntington's disease; living with the disease; other people's knowledge and understanding; and need for support. These are discussed in light of the considerable convergence between the experiences of families in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe.

Efficacy and safety of the dopaminergic stabilizer Pridopidine (ACR16) in patients with Huntington's disease.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of the dopaminergic stabilizer pridopidine (ACR16) in patients with Huntington's disease (HD). METHODS: In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 4-week trial, patients with HD received pridopidine (50 mg/d, n = 28) or placebo (n = 30). The primary outcome measure was the change from baseline in weighted cognitive score, assessed by cognitive tests (Symbol Digit Modalities, verbal fluency, and Stroop tests). Secondary outcome measures included changes in the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Leeds Sleep Evaluation Questionnaire, Reitan Trail-Making Test A, and Clinical Global Impression of Change. Safety assessments were also performed. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between pridopidine and placebo in the change from baseline of the weighted cognitive score. However, secondary measures such as affective symptoms showed trends toward improvement, and there was significant improvement in voluntary motor symptoms compared with placebo (P < 0.05). Pridopidine was well tolerated, with a safety profile similar to placebo. CONCLUSIONS: Pridopidine shows promise as a treatment for some of the symptoms of HD. In this small-scale study, the most notable effect was improvement in voluntary motor symptoms. Larger, longer-term trials are warranted.