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Query: UMLS:C0025362 (mental retardation)
 15,878 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

There is an increasing awareness that alcohol and drug abuse and smoking are not only harmful for the consumer but will also, when taken by a pregnant woman, adversely affect her unborn child. The consequence of the abuse will result from a combination of specific toxic effects of abusing substances and a nonspecific effect from the often very unstable environment of an alcohol- or drug-dependent mother. Poor prenatal care is a common finding in alcohol and drug abuse leading to a high incidence of complications during pregnancy and delivery including premature labor and small-for-gestational-age babies. An increased perinatal mortality has been reported following all types of abuse including tobacco use, probably as a consequence of poor prenatal care as well as of a toxic effect on the fetus. Withdrawal symptoms after birth are most prominent in opiate addiction. The already intrauterinely damaged child will if it stays with its parents often continue to be exposed to several abverse environmental factors. However, symptoms such as mental retardation following alcohol abuse and hyperactivity and emotional disturbances following drug exposure during intrauterine life have also been found in children who have been taken from the parents and placed in foster homes immediately after birth. This means that children of abusing parents both in their custody and in foster home will have to be regarded as risk children that should be subjected to careful medical and psychological follow-up.
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PMID:Abuse of alcohol, drugs and tobacco during pregnancy--consequences for the child. 49 32

There are substantial differences in the family history, the history of pregnancy and delivery and the course in the first week of life of patients with congenital malformations and patients with developmental or intrauterine growth retardation. Patients with malformations demonstrate a high degree of relatives with malformations; in contrast problems in pregnancy, delivery and postnatal development are less pronounced. Mothers of children with intrauterine growth retardation present with a history of early abortion, prematurity, bleeding, toxemia of pregnancy and tobacco abuse. These children present a great number of problems during the first week of life. Patients with mental retardation present with a history of previous abortion prematurity and tobacco and alcohol abuse during pregnancy. These children also present with significant morbidity in the first week of life. The history of these children discloses an unusual number of siblings with death in early life.
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PMID:[Comparison of patients with congenital abnormalities, intrauterine growth retardation and developmental delay in relation to the pre- and perinatal period]. 281 33

Recently numerous reports show deleterious effects of alcohol abuse on pregnant women giving their children a high risk of stillbirth and/or several developmental abnormalities and mental retardation, i.e. the Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). In the present study, the effects of maternal alcohol consumption on lipid metabolism in the litter liver were investigated in rats. These rats showed not only quite less lipid deposition in spite of large amount of alcohol consumption up to adulthood, but also showed increased FFA oxidation in the livers. In addition, increased level of very low density lipoprotein and hypoglucagonemia were found. 40 micrograms/kg of glucagon which is known as an inhibitory factor of apoprotein production in the liver, was injected for 2 weeks into the rat tail vein and resulted in apparent fatty liver and hypolipoproteinemia. Norepinephrine injection (1 mg/kg) caused plasma glucagon to be depressed in the rat as compared with adult alcohol rats. Plasma cyclic AMP response to glucagon was also depressed in these rats. From these results, it is suggested that the deranged glucagon secretion from the pancreas and lowered glucagon-induced cyclic AMP response would relate to the abnormal lipoprotein metabolism in the rat.
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PMID:[Experimental studies on lipoprotein metabolism in rats reared with liquid alcohol diet from the fetal life]. 298 81

Substance abuse among mentally retarded persons, first described 55 years ago, has received little or no attention by specialists in mental retardation. With deinstitutionalization, this problem has reappeared, often followed by victimization (i.e., assault, rape, robbery). In this study the demographic characteristics, family and childhood history, substance use patterns, and substance-related problems of 40 mild mentally retarded persons are compared with those of 40 mild mentally retarded persons without substance abuse. Similarities with substance abusers who are not mentally retarded are noted. Recommendations for alleviating this serious problem among mentally retarded persons are made.
Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse 1988
PMID:Substance use and abuse among mentally retarded persons: a comparison of patients and a survey population. 326 26

This article reviews the effects of alcohol on male and female gonads and hormonal levels; it further discusses the use of ethanol during pregnancy and its teratogenic effect on the fetus. Impotence is a common result of acute alcoholism, and testicular atrophy, infertility, and decreased libido are associated with alcoholism 70-80% of the time. In addition, alcohol consumption produces significant spermatozoal morphological changes involving breakage of the sperm head, distention of the midsection, and curling of its tail. Seminiferous tubules are filled mostly with spermatids that undergo degeneration and result in aspermia. Acute ethanol intoxication is accompanied by decreased plasma testosterone levels and a surge of luteinizing hormone. Ethanol appears to have a dual effect: locally on the gonads and centrally on the hypothalamus-pituitary axis, causing an adverse effect on spermatogenesis. Less is known about the effects of alcohol on the female reproductive function; however, inhibition of ovulation and a significant reduction of plasma estradiol and progesterone levels has been noted in rats following ethanol administration. Alcohol consumption during pregnancy is the most frequent known teratogenic cause of mental retardation. Infants most severely affected by maternal alcohol abuse during gestation possess a number of dysmorphic anomalies termed fetal alcohol syndrome. The abnormalities most typically associated with alcohol teratogenicity can be grouped into 4 categories: growth deficiencies, central nervous system dysfunctions, craniofacial abnormalities, and other major and minor malformations. The effects of maternal alcohol consumption on the fetus are independent of maternal nutritional status and smoking history. Alcohol abuse during pregnancy occurs in 2-13% of US women, and these women have a 50-70% chance of delivering an infant with a serious abnormality.
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PMID:Alcohol and reproductive function: a review. 354 7

Firesetting by adult psychiatric patients is a symptom found in many primary disorders; it is rarely a reflection of the classic disorder, pyromania, as historically defined. The author emphasizes the importance of clinically addressing firesetting behavior and presents six case examples that illustrate the association of firesetting behavior with schizophrenic, affective, and personality disorders as well as with alcohol abuse and mental retardation. Current understanding of the phenomenon indicates that firesetters have significant social deficits, and successful therapeutic interventions based on a social learning model are beginning to be documented.
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PMID:Firesetting in the adult psychiatric population. 359 86

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE) are preventable forms of mental retardation and developmental disability caused by heavy prenatal alcohol exposure. Our best evidence of the overall prevalence of FAS is around 1 in 750 live births, but this figure will vary according to the drinking habits of the community and the diagnostic skills and interests of local physicians. It is likely that many infants are born with FAS or FAE, are never recognized as such, and are never properly diagnosed or evaluated. Other diagnoses that are sometimes confused with FAS include Noonan syndrome and William syndrome. More often, children with milder FAS or FAE go unrecognized. Careful evaluation of possible maternal alcohol abuse during pregnancy can be an important factor in differential diagnosis and proper case management. Alcohol is a teratogenic drug that can produce a wide variety of deficits from prenatal exposure, depending on the dose, timing, and conditions of exposure, as well as on individual differences in sensitivity on the part of the mother and the child. Not all children who are exposed are affected. Perhaps 30-40% of the children of chronic alcoholic mothers who were drinking during pregnancy will have FAS. These children are at high risk for mental retardation or developmental disability. Even within this group, however, there can be large individual differences in eventual outcome. Prognosis involves an interaction between the extent of the damage and the stability and structure of the environment. Children whose mothers were abusing alcohol during pregnancy can be at risk for various learning and attentional problems even without FAS, but in the absence of morphologic effects, the diagnostic and prognostic picture is less clear. Systematic efforts toward both prevention and intervention can assure that each child develops to his or her own best potential.
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PMID:Fetal alcohol. Teratogenic causes of developmental disabilities. 361 65

The effects of maternal alcohol abuse during pregnancy on the offspring were investigated in three different studies. The aim of the studies was to examine the dynamics of infant physical growth and psychological development and to analyze the outcome in relation to the environment during upbringing. Size at birth was related to later mental retardation and neuropsychological symptoms. Psychosocial problems were significantly more frequent in children brought up in their biological homes. Alcohol abuse during the second and third trimester was found to have greater consequences for growth and mental development than during the first trimester.
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PMID:Children of alcoholic mothers. 361 2

On the basis of clinico-psychopathological and experimental-psychological examination of male children and adolescents with general mental retardation of exogenous etiology and the signs of alcoholism of different severity, the authors describe the diagnostic importance of additional symptoms of alcoholism. They also consider correlations between the age at the beginning of systematic alcohol abuse and the clinical picture of the first states of intoxication with the clinico-physiological form of oligophrenia. The data on the psychopathological manifestations of the major syndromes of early alcoholism in the course of disease are presented.
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PMID:[Clinical features of early alcoholism in adolescents with a slight handicap of exogenous etiology]. 370 50

Despite the fact that New Mexico is a desert state, the drowning rate (4.3) is 40% higher than that nationally (3.0). More than half of those who drown are younger than 25 years, toddlers and adolescents being at greater risk than other age groups. In an epidemiologic study of a six-year period, male drowning victims outnumbered female and American Indian and Hispanic victims outnumbered whites. Other major risk factors were epilepsy, mental retardation and alcohol abuse. In most drownings in the under-25 age group, the victim was involved in recreation near the water or swimming, although many were partially or fully clothed. Most drownings occurred in lakes, ditches or rivers. Because New Mexico is not a water-oriented state, public awareness of drowning hazards needs to be increased and more intensive preventive efforts instituted.
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PMID:Drownings of children and youth in a desert state. 403 19


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