Neurogenetics

Neurogenetics at the University of Washington is a tertiary specialty that provides clinical services to adults in the general public as well as training. The clinics, housed at UW Medical Center and the Seattle VA Medical Center are unique resources in the WWAMI region for evaluation and diagnosis of people who have or are at risk for neurogenetic diseases, and for long-term planning of follow-up and treatment in collaboration with their physicians. UW Physicians, Certified Genetic Counselors, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and an Advanced Practice Nurse staff the clinic. The clinic team reviews a patient’s personal and family medical history, comes to a specific diagnosis when possible, provides information about the natural history of the disorder, helps patients make informed choices about testing, provides appropriate referrals and follow-up, and introduces families to peer support groups at the local and national levels. Please contact the clinics for additional information and appointments.

There are more than 200 different types of inherited neurological disorders in which alterations in the molecules that make up the brain and peripheral nerves lead to an inherited condition. These include such disorders as Huntington disease, early-onset and familial forms of Alzheimer disease, inherited forms of ataxia, muscular dystrophies, and degenerative disorders of the brain and nerves. These conditions are generally uncommon as individual entities but, in aggregate, may affect almost 1% of the population. Yet they remain relatively poorly understood and under recognized outside the realm of the Neurogenetics specialty clinics.