Depression and apathy can greatly reduce functional capacity in Huntington’s disease (HD). However, we know very little about the frequency of these conditions in individuals affected by HD.
In this study, the researchers conducted a systematic literature review across 21 databases until June 2021 and narrowed our findings to nine studies for meta-analysis. The inclusion criteria were limited to clinicians assessing depression and apathy in adults with HD.
The meta-analysis found 38% of HD patients experienced depression during their lifetime, while another 40% experienced apathy. When the researchers limited our analysis to gene-positive individuals with HD, they found apathy to be slightly more common than depression at 48% and 43%, respectively.
Moving forward, the authors recommend further studies separating juvenile-onset HD and adult-onset HD cohorts to explore phenotypic profiles.