I have been giving my wife Amantadine for her chorea for a number of years. Recently it hasn't seemed to be having as much of an affect on her, leaving me to search for a better replacement. I am new to this forum, my daughter showed me the website. Any and all support would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome Chris,
I am not familiar with Amantadine but I do know that sometimes meds need to be tweaked or changed as time goes on. I'm sure someone on here will have had some experience with that and will respond, I just wanted to suggest searching the archives in the meantime.

Carla

Welcome to HDLF, Chris.

There is no clear evidence that Amantadine helps with chorea. There have been some small studies suggesting it did but others found no improvement. Tetrabenazine does help with chorea but it's an expensive and tricky drug to use. Dosages need to start slow and be titrated up gradually. In addition, it causes depression so your wife would also need an antidepressant and someone should be home with her while she adjusts to the drug (if you and her doctor decide on that). If her chorea is not too bad, a neuroleptic like Zyprexa will often suppress it so that is a possibility too.

As for balance, there is no medication currently available that helps with balance. However, there is a study showing that people with HD who practiced dancing to Dance, Dance Revolution on Wi improved their balance.

That's funny Marsha (about the Wi). My wonderful wife got a zero turn mower today and I got her radio/noise reducing headphones. I've had them on tonight and danced (feet planted) for a minute. It was sure 'nuf fun. She even commented.

Mike

Would Risperidone help for balance, since it seems to help with chorea?

Sister has been on Risperidone for close to two months now.
She went from 0.5 mg a day to 2 mg a day in a month.
Weeks one and two were good, we noticed the chorea was better, her balance was about the same, no worse anyways.
Week three she seemed more confused than usual, by the end of week four she was really confused and was doing illogical stuff.
Went to the doc right away and gradually cut her down to half dose, 1mg a day in two 0.5gm doses.
Was it all the meds?
For myself I sometimes forget that her disease is progressing until something shifts and it needs to be readdressed.
I wonder if the meds are better for her body but not so hot for her head? Or she would have been in this head space regardless?
Getting past the ramble...I didn't find that it helped with balance.

My husband tried risperdone and it made him a zombie. We switched to zyprexa and what an awesome difference - no more zombie but
it helped the symptoms it needed to help.