Benefit of long-acting paliperidone in Huntington's disease: a case report

Abstract

Through this brief report, we described our clinical considerations about the treatment of motor fluctuations and psychiatric comorbidities in Huntington's disease, for example, aggressiveness and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Indeed, as classical treatment, for example, olanzapine and risperidone, were inefficient to improve motor disorders in our patient, we postulated that motor fluctuations could be influenced by the pharmacokinetic profile of oral risperidone. So, in line with recent practice in schizophrenia, we proposed empirically paliperidone 1-month long-acting injections hypothesized to improve motor fluctuations, treatment so far reserved to Huntington's disease patients who are noncompliant to oral risperidone. Improvement was soon observed concerning motor fluctuations, but also aggressiveness, supporting our initial hypothesis.