A Home Program of Speech Therapy in Huntington's Disease (Clinical Report)

Keywords: Huntington's disease; cranial nerve, rehabilitation; dysphagia; dysarthria The authors followed a group of 14 individuals with mild severe symptoms of Huntington's disease (HD) for a two-year period. Respiratory, phonatory, and oral-motor exercises were prescribed as part of a daily home program for all individuals to serve as adjunctive therapy to pharmacological treatment. Thirteen individuals demonstrated clinically-significant maintenance and/or improvement in respiratory, phonatory, and articulatory function with associated improvement and/or maintenance of swallow function for oral feeding despite progression of chorea in the extremities.