Improved motor signs for patients with chorea associated with Huntington’s disease
WEDNESDAY, July 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Deutetrabenazine results in improved motor signs at 12 weeks among patients with chorea associated with Huntington’s disease, according to a study published online July 5 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Samuel Frank, M.D., from Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues examined the efficacy and safety of deutetrabenazine treatment to control Huntington disease-associated chorea. Ninety ambulatory adults diagnosed with manifest Huntington disease were randomly allocated to receive deutetrabenazine or placebo in a double-blind manner.
The researchers found that the mean total maximal chorea scores changed from 12.1 to 7.7 in the deutetrabenazine group and from 13.2 to 11.3 in the placebo group. Treatment success as measured by the Patient Global Impression of Change occurred in 51 and 20 percent of patients in the deutetrabenazine and placebo groups, respectively. Treatment success as measured by the Clinical Global Impression of Change occurred in 42 and 13 percent of patients, respectively. The mean 36-item Short Form physical functioning subscale score decreased from 47.5 to 47.4 in the deutetrabenazine group and from 43.2 to 39.9 in the placebo group, for a treatment benefit of 4.3. There was no between-group difference in the Berg Balance Test.
“Further research is needed to assess the clinical importance of the effect size and to determine longer-term efficacy and safety,” the authors write.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry, including Auspex Pharmaceuticals, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and funded the study.
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