The characteristic breakdown of motor control and loss of mental capacity may take months or years to become unmistakable. Abnormal motor control may first appear as stiffness, clumsiness, or unsteadiness, particularly in walking. Control of the mouth and tongue muscles is also damaged. Speech becomes increasingly slurred and unintelligible. Eventually the sufferer cannot walk, talk, stand, or manage the simplest manual tasks.
Mental signs begin with irritability, forgetfulness, or depression .
Like the physical symptoms, these moods and lapses get progressively worse. In the final stages the affected person is likely to become disoriented and demented. Symptoms your physician may observe The repetitions of the same amino acid in the protein huntingtin make the gene for Huntington's disease relatively easy to identify. Thus the disease can be diagnosed genetically long before any symptoms appear. The number of repetitions in the gene and therefore in the protein give a general idea of how the disease will progress.