Medication Management Capacity and Its Neurocognitive Correlates in Huntington's Disease

Catherine A Sumida; Emily J Van Etten; Francesca V Lopez; David P Sheppard; Eva Pirogovsky-Turk; Jody Corey-Bloom; J Vincent Filoteo; Steven P Woods; Paul E Gilbert; Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe

doi:10.1093/arclin/acy093

Medication Management Capacity and Its Neurocognitive Correlates in Huntington's Disease

Arch Clin Neuropsychol. 2019 Oct 24;34(7):1121-1126. doi: 10.1093/arclin/acy093.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA.
² Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
³ Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Neuroscience, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA.
⁷ Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA.

Abstract

Objective: Although medication management is a necessary daily activity for individuals with Huntington's disease (HD), medication management abilities and their relation to cognitive functioning have not been evaluated.

Method: Twenty individuals with HD and 20 healthy adults (HA) completed the Medication Management Abilities Assessment (MMAA). Individuals with HD also completed a self-report medication management measure and neuropsychological tests assessing executive function, retrospective memory, and prospective memory.

Results: Individuals with HD performed significantly poorer and made more undertaking errors on the MMAA as compared to HA. No group differences were found in overtaking errors. In the HD group, significant associations were found between undertaking errors and perceived medication management ability as well as between MMAA task performance and measures assessing prospective memory and executive functions.

Conclusions: Medication management capacity was negatively affected in individuals with HD and may be associated with difficulty remembering to take medications in the future.

Keywords: Everyday functioning; Executive functioning; Huntington’s disease; Learning and memory.

MeSH terms

Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Case-Control Studies
Executive Function*
Female
Humans
Huntington Disease / psychology*
Male
Medication Adherence / psychology*
Memory*
Middle Aged
Neuropsychological Tests
Retrospective Studies
Self Report