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Using a Clinical Formulation to Understand Psychological Distress in People Affected by Huntington`s Disease: A Descriptive, Evidence-Based Model

Ziad Kronfol

Huntington`s disease (HD) is an inherited, life-limiting neurodegenerative condition. People with HD experience changes in cognitive motor and emotional functioning, and can also mainly at later stages exhibit behaviours that professionals and carers might find distressing such as hitting others, throwing objects, swearing or making inappropriate comments. While clinical formulation (an individualised approach used by mental health professionals to describe an individual`s difficulties) is a helpful tool to conceptualise patients` wellbeing, a specific formulation framework has not yet been developed for HD. However, evidence has shown that formulation can help guide clinical interventions and increase consistency of approach across multi-disciplinary teams, refine risk management and improve staff or carers` empathic skills and understanding of complex presentations. As a consequence, this paper proposes a new clinical formulation model for understanding distress among people with HD, based on a bio psychosocial framework [1].