Columns

When I met my wife, Jill, she loved that I was a writer. She would smile every time I shared something I’d written. When I asked her about other authors she enjoyed, Jill said her favorite was Edgar Allan Poe. For…

Note: This column describes the experiences of the author’s father with tetrabenazine (often known by its brand name, Xenazine). Not everyone will have the same response to treatment. Consult your doctor before starting or stopping a therapy. My dad, who had Huntington’s disease, was moved…

The contents of Ingrezza (valbenazine) can be taken from their capsules and crushed before being sprinkled on soft foods or given via a feeding tube to Huntington’s disease patients who have difficulty swallowing whole capsules, a preclinical study showed. A Neurocrine Biosciences’ oral therapy, Ingrezza…

“Do you think the way people like to be shown love ever changes?” my wife, Jill, recently asked me as we were making the bed. “What a simple yet complicated question,” I replied, wondering where this conversation was going. Her next question deepened the mystery. “Do you think…

My late father, David, never wanted to take the genetic test for Huntington’s disease, an illness that had already taken the life of his own father and his grandmother. He knew there was neither a cure nor a treatment to slow the disease’s progression. For many years, he…

Forms of mutant huntingtin (mHTT) protein that don’t clump initially drive early disease progression in people with Huntington’s disease, according to a study wherein patient-derived cells were transplanted into newborn mice. These soluble forms of mHTT were found to cause structural changes in the neurons producing them and to…

I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. My wife, Jill, told me she recognized a song but couldn’t remember the lyrics. This sent me spiraling down what she calls the Huntington’s Disease Black Hole. It made me wonder if her memory lapse was yet another symptom of…

My brother, Gavin, has Huntington’s disease. It causes problems with his cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and sensory skills. We’re fortunate to have support from a care adviser from the Huntington’s Disease Association, who has provided my family with strategies to help manage Gavin’s symptoms.

Nearly a year of treatment with Neurocrine Biosciences’ Ingrezza (valbenazine) leads to sustained reductions in uncontrolled movements known as chorea in adults with Huntington’s disease, according to interim data from a Phase 3 trial called KINECT-HD2. “The 50-week data from the ongoing KINECT-HD2 study provide insight on the…

As I type this, my heart swells with emotion. My family’s journey isn’t the easiest, but we savor it because we’re grateful for every precious second we spend together. My wife, Jill, battles Huntington’s disease (HD) with great resiliency and courage, but it’s obvious that the condition has…