Cognitive correlates of obsessive and compulsive symptoms in Huntington's disease

Objective: The authors' goal was to examine the frequency and type of obses sive and compulsive symptoms in Huntington's disease. Method: The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale was used to assess obsess ive and compulsive symptoms in 27 patients with Huntington's disease. The n europsychological test performance of the 14 patients with at least one obs essive symptom and the seven patients with at least one compulsive symptom was compared with the performance of the patients without such symptoms. Results: More than half of the patients with Huntington's disease endorsed obsessive or compulsive symptoms on the Yale-Brown scale. Patients with obs essive or compulsive symptoms showed significantly greater impairment on ne uropsychological tests measuring executive function than those without such symptoms. Conclusions: Basal ganglia pathology in Huntington's disease may contribute to production of obsessive and compulsive symptoms and to executive perfor mance deficits in these patients.