Clinical Care and Patient Resources | Huntington's Disease

The Huntington’s Disease (HD) Clinic at UC Davis is one of the largest multidisciplinary HD clinics in the nation. Many of our providers have more than 15 years of experience in providing specialty care to patients and families with HD. Our multidisciplinary team includes a movement disorder neurologist, nurse practitioner, social worker, physical therapist, genetic counselor, and a psychiatrist. Each patient seen in our clinic is triaged by our social worker prior to each visit, and evaluations based on need are performed that day in clinic. We also have the ability to refer patients for services in their community if preferred.

Initial visits can be long, as most patients have several concerns and families often have many questions. We instruct new patients to block out 2½ to 3 hours for their initial evaluation. Information obtained at an initial visit includes medical history, genetic history, history of HD symptoms (for symptomatic people), medications, functional status, cognitive screening, neurologic examination, and neuropsychiatric screening.

Follow up visits are scheduled as needed. If we are actively working on adjusting medications, we may see people as often as monthly. Most patients come in at least twice a year, but some come in only once a year if they are early stage with no active symptoms or gene positive but with no symptoms yet. Our neurologist, nurse practitioner, and social worker monitor messages in the clinic and can respond to questions and concerns between visits.