(Press-News.org) In research published in Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, investigators developed a brief, reliable, and valid screening tool to help identify individuals with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (a neuromuscular disorder) who are at increased risk of brain-related comorbidities, such as language disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and anxiety.
The research team developed the questionnaire-based screening tool, called the BIND (Brain Involvement iN Dystrophinopathies) screener, by reviewing the medical literature and incorporating expert consensus, and translated it into 11 languages. The questionnaire asks parents, caregivers, or patients to rate the impact of 18 cognitive, behavioral, and emotional items.
The BIND screener demonstrated strong accuracy in identifying individuals with Duchenne muscular dystrophy who had previously been diagnosed with neurodevelopmental or psychiatric conditions in an international sample of 835 participants. Additional validation was conducted in a subsample of 90 children and adolescents who underwent in-depth cognitive and clinical assessments.
“Families often tell us that cognitive and behavioral difficulties can be as challenging as the physical symptoms of Duchenne. This screener is designed to help identify those concerns earlier, so that children and adults can be referred for appropriate support,” said corresponding author Rubén Miranda, PhD, of Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.
URL upon publication: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dmcn.70145
Additional Information
NOTE: The information contained in this release is protected by copyright. Please include journal attribution in all coverage. For more information or to obtain a PDF of any study, please contact: Sara Henning-Stout, newsroom@wiley.com.
About the Journal
Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology (DMCN) is a multidisciplinary journal that has defined the fields of paediatric neurology and childhood-onset neurodisability for over 60 years. DMCN disseminates the latest clinical research results globally to enhance the care and improve the lives of disabled children and their families.
About Wiley
Wiley is a global leader in authoritative content and research intelligence for the advancement of scientific discovery, innovation, and learning. With more than 200 years at the center of the scholarly ecosystem, Wiley combines trusted publishing heritage with AI-powered platforms to transform how knowledge is discovered, accessed, and applied. From individual researchers and students to Fortune 500 R&D teams, Wiley enables the transformation of scientific breakthroughs into real-world impact. From knowledge to impact—Wiley is redefining what's possible in science and learning. Visit us at Wiley.com and Investors.Wiley.com. Follow us on Facebook, X, LinkedIn and Instagram.
END
Screening tool helps identify brain-related comorbidities in individuals with Duchenne muscular dystrophy
2026-01-14
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
How do the active ingredients of monkfruit affect health?
2026-01-14
Luohan Guo (Siraitia grosvenorii), or monkfruit, is a perennial vine in the gourd family that has substantial antioxidant levels and is native to China. New research published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture provides insights into the active compounds of Luohan Guo and their health-promoting properties.
A key characteristic of Luohan Guo is its richness in secondary metabolites, particularly terpenoids, flavonoids, and amino acids. Investigators identified these within the peels and pulps of four Luohan Guo varieties and determined how these metabolites interact with antioxidant receptors and other targets involved in various pathways that ...
News language and social networks: how do they affect the spread of immigration attitudes?
2026-01-14
A study in Economic Inquiry reveals how changes in immigration attitudes in an area spread to other localities and highlights the role of media language and social networks in shaping political attitudes.
The work draws on the Associates Press’ switch in 2013 from recommending the term “illegal immigrant” to outright banning it. The Associated Press is a collaboration of thousands of newspapers, and the ban was not politically motivated but instead came as part of a broader language policy change that prohibited labeling people.
Different newspapers across the United States rely on Associated Press material to varying degrees, and researchers found that people ...
Researchers discover trigger of tendon disease
2026-01-14
Complaints such as pain in the Achilles tendon, tennis elbow, swimmer’s shoulder and jumper’s knee are familiar to many young sportspeople, as well as to older individuals. These conditions are all caused by overloading of tendons and are generally very painful.
“Tendons are fundamentally susceptible to overuse,” explains Jess Snedeker, a professor of orthopaedic biomechanics at ETH Zurich and Balgrist University Hospital in Zurich. “They must withstand powerful loads, with all the forces of our muscles being concentrated to the relatively thin tendons that transmit these forces ...
Your pet's flea treatment could be destroying the planet
2026-01-14
A new paper in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, published by Oxford University Press, finds that common medications used for flea and tick control in dogs and cats may pose a significant environmental risk for insects in the wild.
Isoxazoline antiparasitic drugs are a new type of medication used by veterinarians globally to treat companion animals for flea and tick control. First launched in 2013 they became popular because they were the first orally-administered drugs that worked against both fleas and ticks for a month or more. Dogs and cats eliminate the drugs through defecation.
The European Medicines Agency has highlighted ...
Diabetes risk not associated with timing or type of menopause
2026-01-14
CLEVELAND, Ohio (Jan 14, 2026)—Women aged younger than 45 years who experience menopause are at a higher risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. However, despite such diabetes-related risk factors as increased fat and insulin resistance occurring during menopause, a new large-scale study found no independent relationship between age or type of menopause and the onset of diabetes. Study results are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society.
Natural menopause and menopause with a surgical cause have been associated with a higher risk of alterations in glucose metabolism in postmenopause. That led many researchers to theorize that early ...
Bulk inorganic crystals grown from water emit “handed” light
2026-01-14
Researchers at Kumamoto University have discovered that a purely inorganic crystal grown from water solution can emit circularly polarized light, a special form of light whose “handedness” distinguishes left from right. The finding opens a new pathway toward robust optical materials for security printing, advanced displays, and photonic technologies, using simple inorganic chemistry rather than complex organic molecules.
Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) occurs when a light-emitting material preferentially emits either left-handed or right-handed circularly polarized light. Until now, most CPL materials ...
A new AI-based attack framework advances multi-agent reinforcement learning by amplifying vulnerability and bypassing defenses
2026-01-14
Researchers have developed a novel framework, termed PDJA (Perception–Decision Joint Attack), that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to address a long-standing challenge in the security of multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) systems: how to effectively disrupt coordinated agents under realistic threat models. The new method improves both attack effectiveness and cross-layer vulnerability exploitation, opening new opportunities for evaluating the robustness of AI-driven autonomous systems such as robotics, traffic control, and distributed decision-making platforms.
What’s New?
In recent years, adversarial ...
While exploring the cosmos, astronauts also fuel explorations of the biology of aging and cellular resilience
2026-01-14
When the four-member crew of Axiom-2 launched into space in May 2023 their 10-day mission was chock full of experiments aimed at understanding human physiology. Results from some of those experiments, now online at Aging Cell, highlight spaceflight as a unique model for studying aging as well as cellular resilience. The research sets the stage for testing potential anti-aging interventions for those of us who have no plans to travel in space.
Spaceflight exposes astronauts to a combination of environmental stressors such as microgravity, ionizing ...
Design and synthesis of Zr-IR825 nanoparticles for photothermal therapy of tumor cells
2026-01-14
Photothermal therapy, as an emerging cancer treatment method, has attracted significant attention due to its advantages such as minimal invasiveness, low toxicity, and strong spatiotemporal control. It overcomes the limitations of traditional therapies, which often involve large wounds and systemic toxicity. Recently, a study published in Biofunctional Materials reported the successful development of a novel nanomaterial. This material demonstrates excellent photothermal conversion efficiency and good biocompatibility, showing promising potential as a long-lasting and highly effective photothermal agent in experiments, thus offering new possibilities for precise tumor treatment.
Cancer ...
Food critics or food grabbers? When choosing food, wood mice split into careful examiners who sniff and handle, and quick nut grabbers
2026-01-14
A mouse scurries up to six chestnuts. Three look healthy. Three have exit holes where moth larvae ate the insides before they left. What does the mouse do?
For two years, Nagoya University researchers watched wood mice make these decisions on a forest floor. They measured the time they spent selecting nuts and found that about half the mice observed spent about five seconds sniffing and comparing chestnuts before they chose, potentially increasing their exposure to predators. The other half grabbed the nearest nut and ran in one to two seconds. The study, published in Scientific Reports, confirms that mice use smell to detect ...