Genetic counselling for late-onset disorders

Abstract

Huntingon's disease is used as an example to discuss genetic counselling for autosomal dominant late-onset diseases before and after the availability of genetic testing. • In the context of predictive testing it is of the utmost importance that a free informed choice is safeguarded. The origin and the practice of a multidisciplinary counselling approach for predictive testing is presented. • The evaluation of the quality of genetic counselling for late-onset diseases is very difficult. It is suggested to integrate findings of longitudinal studies evaluating the psychological impact of predictive testing in the counselling approach.