ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC AND ETIOLOGIC FINDINGS IN MENTAL RETARDATION

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Abstract
A series of 578 institutionalized mentally retarded patients was evaluated by a multi-discipline approach in order to establish a presumptive etiologic diagnosis. Abnormal electroencephalographic findings were found to be related to the age of the patient, the severity of retardation, and the presence of seizures or motor dysfunction. In this series 65.9% had abnormal tracings, and the most frequent abnormality was a focal change in 18.7%. However, focal abnormalities correlated with seizures and motor dysfunction so that no specific electroencephalographic aberration was characteristic of mental subnormality. Abnormal tracings were most frequent in nonseizure patients when subnormality was caused by intoxication, new growths, metabolic disorders, infectious processes, trauma, and encephalopathy of unknown cause in decreasing order of frequency. Abnormalities were seen in 36.4% of "cultural-familial" defectives and those whose intellectual defect was presumably due to psychologic factors. It is believed that electroencephalography is a valuable diagnostic aid in the evaluation of mentally retarded children.

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