Objective: To describe impulsivity in patients with Huntington’s disease using a self-report scale and through an objective test of the inhibition capacity. Describe the demographic and clinical characteristics. Correlating impulsivity with the magnitude of the genetic load and the severity of motor symptoms. Compare the levels of impulsivity between symptomatic patients and asymptomatic carriers. Describe the relationship between impulsivity, depression, number of triplets, age and gender.

Background: Descriptions regarding impulsivity in patients with Huntington’s disease began to be published in the medical literature. Our research group were working on knowing the relationship of this symptom with the severity of the motor signs of the disease and in turn what is the relationship of this, with the amount of expansion of the CAG triplets on chromosome 4 .The identification of a relationship between impulsivity as a preclinical symptom of Huntington’s disease and the expansion of triplets is a very important step for the early identification of patients and thus take measures of clinical follow-up, prevention of risk behaviors and anticipate outcomes not desired.

Method: Cross-sectional analytical study, adult patients diagnosed with Huntington’s disease, scales of impulsivity and inhibition capacity, depressive and suicidal symptoms, cognitive and motor examination and quantification of CAG triplets on chromosome 4 were applied.

Results: Forty patients were included, average age of 46.6 years, 55% men. 65% with motor symptoms. No differences in impulsivity between symptomatic vs asymptomatic. 50% of the patients were impulsive (Barrat BIS-11). A high positive correlation was observed between depression and impulsivity, with a significant p (p = 0.000). Table 1

Conclusion: The correlations made corroborate that impulsivity is a symptom independent of the genetic load. It was found that at higher depression the impulsivity scores measured by Barrat scale increase. Half of the patients with Huntington’s disease had high scores on impulsiveness scales. Those who declared themselves asymptomatic also showed impulsivity. No differences were found between the group of symptomatic versus asymptomatic subjects. No correlation with suicide risk was significant. However, this study is promising and corroborates the relationship between impulsivity and depression.

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