A team analysed the medical records (66 prescriptions) of 52 boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), aged 11 on average, who had received drug treatment for neurobehavioural disorders between 2008 and 2022 in two hospitals in Belgium and the Netherlands:
- the most common neurobehavioural disorders are attention disorders (64%), emotional and behavioural disorders (60%) and sleep disorders (52%).
- 55% of patients present with at least four neurobehavioural symptoms.
- psychostimulants, particularly methylphenidate, accounted for 42.4% of psychotropic drugs prescribed.
- they produced a clear improvement in 54.2% of patients.
- SRI antidepressants such as fluoxetine were prescribed in 33.3% of cases and improved symptoms in 38.9% of patients.
- antipsychotics such as risperidone appeared in 21.1% of prescriptions and were beneficial in 22.2% of patients.
