Duchenne and Becker Muscular Dystrophy in Adolescents: Current Perspectives

Overview

Journal Adolesc Health Med Ther

Publisher Dove Medical Press

Date 2018 Mar 29

PMID 29588625

Citations 23

Authors

Jennifer G Andrews

Richard A Wahl

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD) are life-limiting and progressive neuromuscular conditions with significant comorbidities, many of which manifest during adolescence. BMD is a milder presentation of the condition and much less prevalent than DMD, making it less represented in the literature, or more severely affected individuals with BMD may be subsumed into the DMD population using clinical cutoffs. Numerous consensus documents have been published on the clinical management of DMD, the most recent of which was released in 2010. The advent of these clinical management consensus papers, particularly respiratory care, has significantly increased the life span for these individuals, and the adolescent years are now a point of transition into adult lives, rather than a period of end of life. This review outlines the literature on DMD and BMD during adolescence, focusing on clinical presentation during adolescence, impact of living with a chronic illness on adolescents, and the effect that adolescents have on their chronic illness. In addition, we describe the role that palliative-care specialists could have in improving outcomes for these individuals. The increasing proportion of individuals with DMD and BMD living into adulthood underscores the need for more research into interventions and intracacies of adolescence that can improve the social aspects of their lives.

Citing Articles

Changes to the Autophagy-Related Muscle Proteome Following Short-Term Treatment with Ectoine in the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Mouse Model mdx.

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Navigating adulthood: Exploring the transition needs of adolescents and young adults affected by Duchenne or Becker muscular dystrophy.

Barak S, Ackerman Laufer S, Gudinsky Elyashiv M, Rubinstein-Shatz S, Davidson R, Kaplan T PLoS One. 2025; 20(1):e0317006.

PMID: 39808623 PMC: 11731756. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0317006.

Inhibition of Mitochondrial Fission Protein Drp1 Ameliorates Myopathy in the D2-mdx Model of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Rosen H, Berger N, Hodge S, Fujishiro A, Lourie J, Kapadia V bioRxiv. 2025; .

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Mutation spectrum analysis of gene in Indonesian Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy patients.

Dwianingsih E, Iskandar K, Hapsara S, Ping Liu C, Malueka R, Gunadi F1000Res. 2023; 11:148.

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Development and electronic health record validation of an algorithm for identifying patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy in US administrative claims.

Schrader R, Posner N, Dorling P, Senerchia C, Chen Y, Beaverson K J Manag Care Spec Pharm. 2023; 29(9):1033-1044.

PMID: 37610111 PMC: 10508712. DOI: 10.18553/jmcp.2023.29.9.1033.

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