Huntington's Chorea: A Study of Thirty-Four Families

Abstract

The hereditary aspect of mental disease is at the present time a preferential topic of research, and the importance of constitutional factors in the causation of neuroses and psychoses is generally admitted. In many instances the term “constitution” is merely a hypothetical “X” introduced because of the absence of other facts which could account for clinical symptoms. Constitution is given a positive meaning only if it is identified with hereditary equipment, which has to be assessed by the careful analysis of the clinical aspect of the disease as a whole, including its hereditary and familial aspects, as well as environmental and other exogenous causal factors. Unfortunately, psychiatric illnesses as a whole do not lend themselves readily to this type of investigation. It is usual, therefore, to apply the results of studies of heredity in non-psychiatric conditions to psychiatric illnesses themselves. As neurological conditions are the most closely allied to psychiatric ones, they are most commonly used. One of the most convenient types of illness to study from this point of view is Huntington's chorea, not only because of its psychiatric aspects, but also because of its striking symptomatology and course.