Prevalence of Depression among Children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: A Cross-sectional Survey Study.

Authors

Maddukuri Sriram, Neelu Desai, Vrajesh Udani

Published in

Annals of Indian Academy of Neurology. Jul 15, 2026. Epub Jul 15, 2026.

Abstract

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a common muscular dystrophy of childhood with the devastating consequence of loss of independent ambulation by teenage years and death by the second or third decade. We aimed to determine the prevalence of depression among children with DMD and to explore the relationship of depression with age, socio-demographic parameters, family history, steroid use, and current motor ability of children.
We performed a cross-sectional questionnaire survey in 50 boys with DMD (aged 8-16 years) in an outpatient clinic. Self-reported symptoms of depression were assessed using the children's depression rating scale-revised.
We observed that 28% of children were clinically depressed, while 12% of children had subthreshold depressive symptoms. The cognitive domain of depression was observed to be the most affected in the majority of study participants. A significant association was found between socioeconomic status, positive family history of DMD, and school difficulties with co-existing depression (P < 0.05). Our results suggest that depression is a common comorbidity in children with DMD.
We recommend regular psychological screening and appropriate intervention for every DMD child, with special emphasis on those belonging to extremes of socioeconomic classes and with a positive family history of DMD.

PMID:
42464695
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 17 Jul 2026.

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