Wilson's Disease

Abstract

Appropriate anticopper therapy for Wilson's disease is the critical element in halting progression of the disease and allowing patient recovery. Selection of the drug or drugs to use for a particular patient depends on the stage of the disease (ie, initial acutely ill patient versus chronic maintenance patient) and the type of presentation (ie, neurologic/psychiatric versus hepatic). I treat patients initially presenting with hepatic disease with a combination of zinc and trientine, those presenting with neurologic/psychiatric disease with tetrathiomolybdate, and those in the maintenance phase with zinc.