WASHINGTON -- Georgetown University Medical Center in collaboration with MedStar Georgetown University Hospital announce the launch of the Huntington Disease Care, Education and Research Center. With support from the Griffin Foundation, the Huntington Disease Center is the first comprehensive, multidisciplinary center to focus on treatment, patient education and research of the disease in the Washington, D.C. area.
Huntington disease (HD) is a hereditary, progressively degenerative brain disorder for which there is no cure, and only one approved treatment for symptoms. HD causes involuntary body movements, cognitive decline, and a host of behavioral disturbances that slowly diminish the ability to walk, talk and reason. Treatment of a person with HD involves a skilled clinical team to make an accurate diagnosis and provide comprehensive care. About 30,000 people in the United States have HD and about 150,000 individuals carry a 50 percent risk of having inherited the fatal HD gene.
"Caring for those with Huntington disease and their families takes a comprehensive and tailored approach," explains MedStar Georgetown University Hospital President Richard Goldberg, MD. "MedStar Georgetown and Georgetown University Medical Center are assembling a team of specialized neurologists, psychiatrists, social workers and other specialists as a part of the new Huntington Disease Center. Up until now, people with HD have been underserved in the Washington, DC area. This Center changes that."
The joint endeavor will be lead by GUMC's Ira Shoulson, M.D., who will serve as interim director of the Center. Shoulson, a professor in the Department of Neurology, is a leading researcher in Huntington disease and founder of the Huntington Study Group, an international academic consortium of clinical researchers.
There will be two clinical co-directors of the Center representing the critical collaboration necessary of neurology and psychiatry in carin
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| Contact: Karen Mallet km463@georgetown.edu Georgetown University Medical Center Source:Eurekalert |