Preventable forms of severe mental retardation

To study the cause-prevention of mental retardation. 70 cases were studied prospectively a Al-Mansoor Paediatric Teaching Hospital/Saddam's Medical city/Baghdad, from October 1989 to April 1990. The study showed that a definite cause behind mental retardation was found in 46 [65.7%] cases. Possible cases were found in 7 [10%] cases, whereas in 17 [24.3%] cases the definite causes were unknown. The study showed that a good proportion of cases might be due to causes amenable to prevention and with special possible measures, numbers of mentally retarded patients can be reduced in our community