Objective: To identify psychological disturbance occurring in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) children.

Method: Fifty one DMD children aged from 5 up to 14 years and 51 age matched healthy children were evaluated. Korean child behavioral cheak list (K-CBCL) was used to evaluate psychological problems in DMD and healthy control children. Korean Wechsler Intelligence Scale for children were performed in DMD children to evaluate cognitive function. To evaluate children's functional level, Brooke's scale for upper extremities and Vignos' scale for lower extremities were used. A correlational analysis was performed between age and total IQ score and K-CBCL subscales.

Results: K-CBCL profiles of the DMD children and control group revealed that DMD children obtained significantly lower scores on social, school, total social competence scales (P＜0.01) and significantly higher scores on withdrawn, somatic complaints, anxious/depressed, immaturity, attention problems, internalizing problem, total behavior problems and emotional ability (P＜0.01). Correlations of the age and functional level of the DMD group with each social scale of the CBCL resulted in significant negative relationship on social, school, and total social competence scales (P＜0.01) and significant positive relationship on withdrawn, somatic complaints, anxious/depressed, immaturity, internalizing problems and total behavior problems (P＜0.01). Correlational analysis of IQ score of the DMD group and each scale of the CBCL revealed no significant relationships except school (P＜0.05) and total behavioral problem (P＜0.05).

Conclusion: We concluded that DMD children suffer from wide spectrum of psychological disturbance such as somatic complaints, attention and emotional problems in addition to expected psychological problems due to chronic disease and its progression. Thus, for the successful rehabilitation, these various emotional disturbances need proper treatment.

Keywords :Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Behavioral problems, Emotional problems