From what country does the disease known in the United States as Huntington's Chorea originate?

Stew54

It's an inherited genetic disorder, and I don't know that it has an identified "source". Because the onset of symptoms is delayed until middle age sufferers have commonly had families and passed it on before they know they are at risk of doing so. It bears the name of an American doctor (Huntington) because he gave a complete description of it in a paper in 1872, though it had been described previously by other doctors both in America and Europe (particularly studies in Britain and in Norway). Jun 09 04, 12:52 AM

mibmob

There are two - one is Huntingdon's chorea and the other is Huntington's disease known confusingly as Huntington's chorea. The former started in East Anglia in the UK, I believe. Jun 09 04, 3:52 AM

Stew54

You set me off on a most interesting search over lunchtime mibmob, because I didn't know about the East Anglia connection. As far as I can find out Huntingdon is just a variant spelling of Huntington; he preferred the term "chorea" but "disease" is used increasingly, especially outside the US. The condition is sometimes confused with other choreas, such as the illness commonly known as St Vitus Dance. The patients that George Huntington treated in New York all seem to have had a common ancestry in a small group of people who emigrated to America in the 1630s from a village called Bures in Suffolk England. Many other descendants of that group were mixed up in the Massachusetts witchcraft trials, and Huntington's does have symptoms which would arouse suspicion (involuntary movements especially, hence the name "chorea" meaning "dance"). There is some question of whether the Suffolk area is the only source, because it had been recorded in the Middle Ages elsewhere in Europe but it seems definitely to be the place to which a large number of American and British sufferers can trace their illness. I found this article quite interesting, and I hope the link works OK as it is to a pdf file. http://www.neurology.ufl.edu/Publications/Okun/26hd_okun_neurol_pdf__2003.pdf Jun 09 04, 5:13 AM