| Summary: | Ailsa L McGregor,1,2 Jo Dysart,3 Malcolm D Tingle,4 Bruce R Russell,1,2 Rob R Kydd,5 Gregory Finucane2 1New Zealand’s National School of Pharmacy, Division of Health Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand; 2Centre for Brain Research, University of Auckland, 3Liaison Psychiatry, Auckland City Hospital, 4Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology, 5Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand Abstract: The aim of this study was to describe the effects of varenicline, a smoking cessation aid that acts as a nicotinic agonist, on cognitive function in patients with early clinical Huntington’s disease (HD) who were current smokers. Three gene-positive patients transitioning to symptomatic HD were evaluated using the Unified Huntington’s Disease Rating Scale part I and III (motor and behavioral subscales) at baseline and after 4 weeks of treatment. Cognitive function was assessed using a touch screen computer-based neurocognitive test battery (IntegNeuro®). Varenicline (1 mg twice daily) significantly improved performance in executive function and emotional recognition tasks. Our case reports describe no clinically significant adverse effects and suggest that varenicline improves aspects of cognitive function in patients with early HD. A randomized controlled study is now underway. Keywords: varenicline, Huntington’s disease, cognitive symptoms
|
|---|
