What has research shown about people's psychological reactions to genetic testing for Huntington's disease?

What will be an ideal response?

Huntington's disease is transmitted by a single dominant gene; a person who has inherited the gene will inevitably develop the disorder. Among people who volunteer to be tested for the gene, those who learn they will develop the disorder are quite distressed at first. However, six months later their psychological state was generally better than it had been prior to testing. People for whom the test indicated freedom from the disorder were elated at first but then seemed to go into a slump. Sometimes this was because they had already made irreversible decisions based on their possible genetic status, such as being sterilized. Other people were negatively affected because they had unrealistically high expectations about how the test results would change their lives. There were similar numbers of negative reactions in the groups that got good news and bad news. People who had experienced psychological problems prior to the test had the worst outcome regardless of the test outcome.

Psychology

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After an individual experiences one major depressive episode they are at high risk of experiencing another episode.

a. true b. false

Psychology

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What will be an ideal response?

Psychology