An analysis of neuropsychological profile of duschenne muscular dystrophy disease carrier mothers

Relationship of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) which is mainly a muscle disease, with cognitive disorders has been shown in recent years. Studies thus far about DMD have shown in detail the presence of cognitive impairment however there is not any cognitive study about mothers of children with DMD who carry mutation in the same. In this study, neuropsychological profiles of both carrier mothers and non-carrier mothers were examined and the findings were compared with normal mothers. Our study was conducted with 94 participants, 32 of whom were carriers, 26 were non-carriers and 36 were controls. The partipicants were administered the Digit Span Test, Stroop Test, Trail Making Test, Verbal Fluency Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Tower of London Test, Boston Naming Test, Benton Face Recognition Test, Benton Judgement of Line Orientation Test, Rey Complex Figure Test, Verbal Memory Processes Scale. SPSS 15.0 for Windows program was used for statistical analysis. As a result of the statistical analysis, there were statistically significant differences between DMD carrier group and the control group, such as Digit Span Test, Train Making Test, Verbal Fluency Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Tower of London Test, Boston Naming Test, Benton Judgement of Line Orientation Test, Rey Complex Figure Test, Verbal Memory Processes Scale. No statistically significant difference was found between carriers and non-carriers in any of the tests. A statistically significant difference was found in the Verbal Fluency Test, the Tower of London Test, the Boston Naming Test, the Rey Complex Figure Test and the Verbal Memory Process Test between the non carriers and the controls, while there was no difference in the other tests. The results of the study show that carrier mothers have a cognitive impairment similar to those with DMD when compared to healthy controls. Keywords: Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, dystrophin gene, carrier mother, non-carrier mother, neuropsychological tests