Hope in Huntington's disease A survey in counseling patients with Huntington's disease,as well as the caregivers

BACKGROUND:It is difficult to attract interest in non-compulsory,preventive,medical care,and persons diagnosed with certain diseases often ignore the existence of these diseases.However, Huntington’s disease(HD) is an exception. OBJECTIVE:To qualitatively analyze factors motivating HD patients to participate in a study,namely the European Huntington’s Disease Network(EHDN) REGISTRY. DESIGN,TIME AND SETTING:An observational survey was conducted in the EHDN Study Site in Poznan,Poland between 2007 and 2008. PARTICIPANTS:The study involved 22 persons affected with HD and 3 pre-symptomatic individuals, totaling 9 males and 16 females.The 24 participants in this study had 24 different caregivers.A total of 25 symptomatic or pre-symptomatic subjects participated in the initial REGISTRY visit,as well as 6 in the second,and 1 in the third.All subjects did not know each other prior to the visit. METHODS:A mutation in the IT15 gene was confirmed in each patient or pre-symptomatic mutation carrier.An in-depth interview produced detailed information on the HD patients,as well as the caregivers,for the REGISTRY study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:A qualitative analysis of the factors motivating HD patients and the pre-symptomatic mutation carriers to participate in the REGISTRY longitudinal,observational, research project was performed. RESULTS:The primary motivating factor for involvement of HD patients and the caregivers in the REGISTRY study was the hope that an effective HD therapy would soon be discovered.In HD patients and the pre-symptomatic group,the response to participate in the REGISTRY project reached 100%,despite the fact that they knew the project was only an observational study. CONCLUSION:Patient hope is thought to be a factor for engaging in preventive,therapeutic activities.However,this is rarely mentioned in medical papers and clinical textbooks,and is usually overlooked in medical teaching.Clearly,efforts should be made to include this in clinical practice.