Social Cognition and Quality of Life in Huntington's Disease
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Social Cognition and Quality of Life in Huntington's Disease
IRAS ID
317365
Contact name
Clare Eddy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 5 months, 30 days
Research summary
Huntington’s disease (HD) is a genetic disorder that involves brain cell loss over time. It affects movement, thought, emotion and behaviour. Patients and their families often report difficulties with social interaction, and the social and emotional domains of quality of life are negatively affected. This makes sense because research has shown that patients also have difficulties on standard tests of social cognition, which measure the ability to recognise emotions (e.g. through faces or voices), and to reason about other people’s thoughts and emotions. However, research has not yet looked at how performance on these tests is directly related to patients’ social problems in everyday life. This study will explore that relationship. There will be two experiments, each involving questionnaires which can be filled in whenever it is easiest for the participant, and some cognitive tasks which can be done with the experimenter online or in person. We will include measures to assess social cognition, relationships, quality of life, and of other symptoms patients with HD often have (e.g. to do with movement, memory, low mood). We will include both patients and close others to them (e.g. their carers, spouses, friends and family members) so that we gain a broader perspective on everyday social interactions and because people with HD can lack awareness about some of their problems. We will also collect comparison/control data from those people who do not have HD. This research will help us understand which skills picked up by standard tests seem to be most important in predicting everyday social problems. This is useful for diagnosis and treatment planning. We can also use this information to plan follow-on research which will develop a new assessment especially for social difficulties in HD, which can be used to develop and evaluate new treatments.
REC name
West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/WM/0184
Date of REC Opinion
21 Sep 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion