Short-term effects of olanzapine in Huntington disease

Objective: The aim was to describe the short-term (6 months) effects of ola nzapine on behavioral and motor clinical manifestations in a group of 11 pa tients with Huntington disease. Method: An open-pilot study of olanzapine ( 5 mg) in patients with clinical and genetic diagnosis of Huntington disease was used. The Unified Huntington Disease Rating Scale for clinical assessm ent and the Total Functional Capacity score for the disease-stage evaluatio n were used. A statistical analysis was performed to compare the effects of olanzapine on the Unified Huntington Disease Rating Scale scores at time 0 (baseline) and at time 1 (6 months). Comparisons of motor scores, of singl e behavioral items, and of TFC scores were performed within the group. Resu lts: The behavioral assessment score of items regarding depression, anxiety , irritability, and obsessions showed a significant improvement (range of p , 0.013-0.048). Given the total behavioral scores (sum of all the items inv estigated), five patients significantly improved their behavioral score aft er a 6-month treatment (range of p, 0.013-0.047). Choreic movements improve d, although not significantly (0.05 less than or equal to p less than or eq ual to 1). Conclusions: Olanzapine is a potentially useful antipsychotic dr ug, with significant short-term effects on behavioral changes, mainly in pa tients with severe psychiatric symptoms at the onset. It might be considere d as a possible therapeutic choice for treatment of Huntington disease.