Assessing Depression, Anxiety, and Apathy in Early Huntington Disease
Author Information
Author(s): Anthony L Vaccarino, Terrence Sills, Karen E. Anderson, Anne-Catherine Bachoud-Lévi, Beth Borowsky, David Craufurd, Kevin Duff, Joseph Giuliano, Mark Groves, Mark Guttman, Peter Kupchak, Aileen K Paulsen, Jane S. Pedersen, Ken van Duijn, Daniel P Evans, Freddy van Kammen
Primary Institution: Ontario Cancer Biomarker Network
Hypothesis
The study aims to develop a valid functional rating scale to assess early symptoms in Huntington disease gene expansion carriers.
Conclusion
The study successfully developed and beta tested interview questions to assess depression, anxiety, and apathy in prodromal and early Huntington disease individuals.
Supporting Evidence
- Eight interview questions were selected for further testing based on their ability to produce scoring across ranges of overall severity.
- The internal consistency of the selected items was high, with Cronbach's alpha at 0.89.
- Field testing involved a minimum sample size of 100 participants.
- Focus groups included input from patients, caregivers, and experts to ensure the relevance of the interview questions.
- Statistical comparisons were made using the Mann-Whitney U test.
Takeaway
Researchers created questions to help understand feelings like sadness and worry in people who might have Huntington disease, even before they are officially diagnosed.
Methodology
The study involved working group meetings to develop interview questions, followed by field testing in prodromal and early Huntington disease individuals.
Limitations
Some interview questions had low frequency of response and poor discriminative properties.
Participant Demographics
{"total":202,"prHD":115,"HD":87,"male_percentage":47,"age_range":"18-78"}
Statistical Information
P-Value
0.83
Statistical Significance
p = 0.83
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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