Psychiatric symptoms and CAG repeats in neurologically asymptomatic Huntington's disease gene carriers

The putative relationship between the psychiatric profile of a sample of ne urologically asymptomatic Huntington's disease gene carriers and CAG repeat s was investigated. The psychiatric assessments (by consultant psychiatrist and computerised battery) were undertaken before the genetic testing was c arried out. In this way, the informational distortions caused by neurologic al and cognitive deficits were avoided. The hypothesis that there is a rela tionship between psychiatric and CAG repeats was tested by seeking direct c orrelations between psychiatric systems and CAG repeats, and also by correc ting the correlation by the number of years above or below the estimated ag e of onset in Huntington's disease. Scores for irritability and cognitive f ailures were high in the sample. There was no correlation between any psych iatric variable and CAG repeats. Possible explanations for this lack of cor relations are discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.