Question

It's now possible to diagnose some nervous system disorders using genetic testing. One example is Huntington's Chorea, which slowly robs you of motor and cognitive function until you die, typically before age 55. Would you want to know if you had the gene that would lead to you developing this disease? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Personally speaking yes I would like to know the risk of me developing a disease in the future but there are some advantages and disadvantages of the same.

Advantages

1) A sense of relief from uncertainty 2) Potential risk to yourself and your family members 3) You can seek early advise from the doctor and treatment. 4) Lastly also development of other easy and new screening methods with experience from the current methods of testing

Disadvantages

1)Testing may increase stress and anxiety in some individuals 2)Sometimes the testing gives results that are inconclusive 3)While it is true that some tests can be very specific about the genetic disorder, these test often cannot tell the severity of the manifestation of the disease. Also, a negative result may not be conclusive because it is not possible for a single test to identify all the genetic changes and abnormalities in a certain disorder. Because of this, additional tests may be necessary. 4)While most genetic disorders can be easily diagnosed using these tests, there are still millions of genetic mutations which are still not understood . 5)Furthermore, treatment strategies are still lacking for some disorders so if found positive it only adds to anxiety of individual and his family with no therapy available.