Huntington’s disease (HD) is a relentlessly progressive neuropsychiatric disorder with an underlying autosomal dominantly inherited genetic defect. Classical antipsychotics (i.e. phenothiazines or butyrophenones) are the most used medication to reduce the (probably dopamine-born) choreiform hyperkinesias. Ziprasidone is the latest of a new class of atypical antipsychotics; it has not been studied so far in this indication. We report three genetically confirmed HD patients who improved significantly in several categories of the motor scale of the Unified HD Rating Scale.
Bonelli R M , Mahnert F A , Niederwieser G (2002) Olanzapine for Huntington’s disease: an open label study . Clin Neuro-pharmacol25: 263–265
2.
Caley C F , Cooper C K (2002) Ziprasidone: the fifth atypical antipsychotic . Ann Pharmacother36: 839–851
3.
Erdemoglu A K , Boratav C (2002) Risperidone in chorea and psychosis of Huntington’s disease . Eur J Neurol9: 182–183
4.
Grove V E Jr , Quintanilla J , DeVaney G T (2000) Improvement of Huntington’s disease with olanzapine and valproate . N Engl J Med343: 973–974
5.
Gunasekara N S , Spencer C M , Keating G M (2002) Ziprasidone: a review of its use in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder . Drugs62: 1217–1251
6.
Stimmel G L , Gutierrez M A , Lee V (2002) Ziprasidone: an atypical antipsychotic drug for the treatment of schizophrenia . Clin Ther24: 21–37
7.
Tyler A , Scourfield J , Morris M (1996) Management and therapy of Huntington’s disease. In Harper P (ed.), Huntington’s disease, 2nd edn, pp. 161–200. Saunders Company, London
