From Diagnosis to Treatment of Muscular Dystrophy: Psychology Meets Medicine

This paper will briefly discuss the condition of muscular dystrophy disease in Malaysia and will explore the potential of psychological approach in managing the muscular dystrophy patients in Malaysia. Muscular dystrophy is a hereditary and progressive degenerative disorder affecting skeletal muscles, and also often other organ systems. This term includes many conditions associated to the muscle wasting and weakness where all are still genetic but having different types due to different genes and differ in severity. It is estimated there are around 43 newborns are affected by muscular dystrophy each year in Malaysia. The real burden of muscular dystrophy in Malaysia is difficult to estimate, since the epidemiological data for each of muscular dystrophies and even for muscular dystrophies in collective are not available. There are not many researches focusing on muscular dystrophy in Malaysia. The few available researches related to muscular dystrophy in Malaysia are mostly revolving around the medical and genetic science aspects of it, not in the psychology and social sides of the disease.