Attitudes of Those at Risk for Huntington's Disease toward Presymptomatic Provocative Testing

TY - JOUR

T1 - Attitudes of Those at Risk for Huntington's Disease toward Presymptomatic Provocative Testing

AU - Mccormack, Michael K.

AU - Lazzarini, Alice

PY - 1982/11/25

Y1 - 1982/11/25

N2 - To the Editor: Klawans et al.1 originally reported on the potential use of levodopa loading to predict the presence of the gene for Huntington's disease in at-risk subjects, and an eight-year follow-up study2 demonstrated a prognostic capability for this test. Fahn3 pointed out several problems with provocative testing with levodopa, including the psychological consequences of inducing transient chorea symptoms in subjects, which might result in suicide. He suggested that the ideal test would be one in which the subject would be unaware of the results. Bates,4 however, maintained that the results of presymptomatic tests should not be withheld from.

AB - To the Editor: Klawans et al.1 originally reported on the potential use of levodopa loading to predict the presence of the gene for Huntington's disease in at-risk subjects, and an eight-year follow-up study2 demonstrated a prognostic capability for this test. Fahn3 pointed out several problems with provocative testing with levodopa, including the psychological consequences of inducing transient chorea symptoms in subjects, which might result in suicide. He suggested that the ideal test would be one in which the subject would be unaware of the results. Bates,4 however, maintained that the results of presymptomatic tests should not be withheld from.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/0020491427

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/0020491427#tab=citedBy

U2 - 10.1056/NEJM198211253072221

DO - 10.1056/NEJM198211253072221

M3 - Letter

C2 - 6215584

SN - 0028-4793

VL - 307

SP - 1406

JO - New England Journal of Medicine

JF - New England Journal of Medicine

IS - 22

ER -