Abstract
Psychiatric interviews and clinical psychological test have been carried out on 31 patients with progressive muscular dystrophy. Ages are ranged from 8 to 17 years. Correlation between clinical findings and severity of the disease has also been examined.
In these patients have been commonly seen psychological hypofunction, indifference, inability to maintain concentration, poor association, indifferentiation of reality testing, decreased sensitivity to stimulus, supression of emotional expression, hypofunction of examining and criticizing reality, immaturity of verbal expression, and poor experiences of the past. The patients usually tend to consider frustration as inevitable and rarely make efforts for a complete solution of the problems. Their types of adjustment are characterized by passive and introvert stability or instability prone to lead to emotional problems.
On the other hand, in 17 patients have been noted behavior problems such as neurotic habit disorders, restlessness, asthenic and aggressive attitude. It is especially interesting to note transient ill humor and melancholy occurring frequently in the patients of middle school age. In addition, they are unwilling to study hard at the bed school, the disease is always borne deeply in their minds, and they are easily frustrated in the relation to doctors, nurses, therapists and bed school teachers.
No definite correlation between clinical findings and severity of the disease could be elicited. However, it seemed that some of the test results correlated with severity of the disease.
