RESUMO
Four children with intellectual deterioration are discussed. The importance of a developmental and educational history and sequential psychological testing is emphasized. Progressive visual impairment, clumsiness and increasingly poorly-controlled fits should alert teachers and doctors to the possibility of associated intellectual deterioration. As well as global loss, tests of memory and mental arithmetic, manipulative and perceptual skills were the most sensitive index of dementia. We propose a further subcategory of the present codes of classification of childhood psychiatric disorders.
Assuntos
Demência/psicologia , Inteligência , Adolescente , Ataxia Telangiectasia/psicologia , Criança , Desenvolvimento Infantil , Escolaridade , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , Fenilcetonúrias/psicologia , Comportamento Social , Acuidade Visual , Escalas de WechslerRESUMO
Forty-seven patients at the Hospital for Sick Children, London, who had phenylketonuria and were on a low-phenylalanine diet (21 early-treated--that is, treatment started before the age of 4 months--and 26 late-treated) were placed on a normal diet between the ages of 5 and 15 years. They showed significant falls in mean IQ of about six points after the diet was withdrawn. Twenty-two similar patients (five early-treated and 17 late-treated) at the Universitäts-Kinderklinik, Heidelberg, who were placed on a relaxed low-phenylalanine rather than a normal diet, showed smaller and non-significant falls in mean IQ. During the period of strict diet none of the patients in London or Heidelberg showed any consistent falls in IQ. These results suggest that complete withdrawal of the low-phenylalanine diet during childhood leads to a fall in intellectual progress in many patients.
Assuntos
Inteligência , Fenilalanina/administração & dosagem , Fenilcetonúrias/dietoterapia , Adolescente , Fatores Etários , Criança , Pré-Escolar , Humanos , Testes de Inteligência , Fenilalanina/sangue , Fenilcetonúrias/psicologia , Fatores de TempoRESUMO
Because of changing attitudes to the measurement of mental abilities, only the slow child is assessed and receives special educational help. By contrast, the bright child may remain undetected because unassessed. For these children there are few special provisions, and they may present as behaviourally disturbed or educationally retarded. We describe four such children, and we feel that more facilities should be devoted to helping bright children, both at home and in school.
