Chorea

Huntington's Chorea is inherited, with symptoms usually appearing after the age of 30. It is due to a defect in a gene, which causes the development of jerky, uncontrolled movements called chorea. This word comes from the Latin root meaning dance (as in choreographer). The movements are repetitive writhing, twisting, and dance-like, with stiffness and difficulty walking.

There are psychiatric symptoms, with early development of dementia. Since the inheritance is transmitted in a dominant mode, one half of the offspring of an affected individual will be affected. There is a blood test available to relatives of sufferers to see if they carry the affected gene before the development of symptoms, though this should not be undertaken without careful genetic counselling.

There are other conditions which produce involuntary, choreiform, movements, such as SYDENHAM'S CHOREA, or St VITUS' DANCE, which affects adolescents after throat infections. These movements are gentler, and usually resolve after a few months. In the elderly, disease due to poor circulation to the brain can cause chorea, and some drugs used to treat psychiatric disorders, or Parkinson's disease, can produce uncontrollable writhing and grimacing movements of the face, lips and limbs. This is called tardive dyskinesia.
 
 
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