Mental retardation in Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Objective: To survey the medical literature directed to the study of cognitive dysfunction in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy through description of the milestones of neurological development and psychometric tests for quantifying intelligence. Sources: Non-systematic review of aspects of cognition in Duchenne muscular dystrophy in the major medical scientific bases: MEDLINE, LILACS, SciELO and Cochrane Library. Summary of the findings: Patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy exhibited delay in walking and language development, which correlated with lower scores on future intelligence tests. There is marked impairment in the verbal subtests. Conclusions: Average IQ has standard deviation below the average of the population. The greater the cognitive impairment, the worse aspects related to morbidity and mortality in the disease will be.