In addition, when CBP is overexpressed, polyglutamine-induced death is diminished, further demonstrating that CBP plays an important role in Huntingtons disease and neurons in general. Diagnosis
Diagnosis of the onset of HD can be made following the appearance of physical symptoms specific to the disease. Genetic testing can be used to confirm a physical diagnosis if no family history of HD exists. Even before the onset of symptoms, genetic testing can confirm if an individual or embryo carries an expanded copy of the trinucleotide repeat (CAG) in the HTT gene that causes the disease. Genetic counseling is available to provide advice and guidance throughout the testing procedure and on the implications of a confirmed diagnosis. These implications include the impact on an individuals psychology, career, family-planning decisions, relatives, and relationships. Despite the availability of presymptomatic testing, only 5% of those at risk of inheriting HD choose to do so. Clinical
A physical examination, sometimes combined with a psychological examination, can determine whether the onset of the disease has begun. Excessive unintentional movements of any part of the body are often the reason for seeking medical consultation. If these are abrupt and have random timing and distribution, they suggest a diagnosis of HD. Cognitive or behavioral symptoms are rarely the first symptoms diagnosed; they are usually only recognized in hindsight or when they develop further. How far the disease has progressed can be measured using the unified Huntingtons disease rating scale, which provides an overall rating system based on motor, behavioral, cognitive, and functional assessments.
Whereas the hysterias involved at their source a narrowing of the field of consciousness, the psychasthenias involved at root a disturbance in the fonction du reél (function of reality), a kind of weakness in the ability to attend to, adjust to, and synthesise ones changing experience (cf. executive functions in todays empiricist psychologies). Carl Gustav Jung later made the hysteric and the psychasthenic states the prototypes of what he described as extroverted and introverted personalities.Karl Jaspers preserves the term "neurasthenia", defining it in terms of "irritable weakness" and describing phenomena such as irritability, sensitivity, a painful sensibility, abnormal responsiveness to stimuli, bodily pains, strong experience of fatigue, etc. This is contrasted with "psychasthenia", which, following Janet, he describes as a variety of phenomena "held together by the theoretical concept of a diminution of psychic energy." The psychasthenic person prefers to "withdraw from his fellows and not be exposed to situations in which his abnormally strong complexes rob him of presence of mind, memory and poise." The psychasthenic lacks confidence, is prone to obsessional thoughts, unfounded fears, self-scrutiny and indecision. This state in turn promotes withdrawal from the world and daydreaming, yet this only makes things worse. "The psyche generally lacks an ability to integrate its life or to work through and manage its various experiences; it fails to build up its personality and make any steady development." Jaspers believed that some of Janets more extreme cases of psychasthenia were cases of schizophrenia. References


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