STUDY OF PSYCHIATRIC MORBIDITY IN PATIENTS WITH HUNTINGTONS-DISEASE, THEIR RELATIVES, AND CONTROLS - ADMISSIONS TO PSYCHIATRIC-HOSPITALS INDENMARK FROM 1969 TO 1991

Psychiatric morbidity among 74 non-affected first-degree relatives and 93 non-affected second-degree relatives of patients with Huntington's disease (HD) was compared with that of 37 patients with HD and with m atched control groups. Due to specific age criteria, the first-degree relatives were at decreased risk and the second-degree relatives at ne gligible risk of being carriers of the gene for HD. Information on adm issions to departments of psychiatry and diagnoses at discharge were o btained for all subjects from a nationwide central register. Psychiatr ic morbidity was no greater among relatives than among controls, where as HD patients had significantly more admissions and psychiatric diagn oses than relatives. Growing up with a risk of developing HD does not itself increase the risk of developing psychiatric illness resulting i n hospital admission. Severe psychiatric disorders in HD patients were thus most likely to be aetiologically related to the disease process, possibly through a genetic mechanism.