The Presentation of Mental Illness in Mentally Retarded Adults

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Abstract
A survey of 1507 mentally handicapped adults in a long-stay hospital, 3/4 of whom were severely subnormal, led to the identification of 42 (2.8%) with a current typical affective illness. Nonverbal criteria were used so that such conditions could be recognized at any level. Schizophrenia could be diagnosed only on verbally expressed symptoms and was found in 27 (1.8%) of the patients, none of whom was preverbal in mental level. An atypical affective illness superimposed on an early childhood psychosis was found in 41 (27%) of the patients. Half of these patients were preverbal, so that the pattern of their illness was particularly difficult to recognize.

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