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

In 25 families with two children and one child with mental retardation, differences in coping between mothers and fathers were studied, taking into consideration the ordinal position of the handicapped child. Mothers showed more emotional stress, more self-criticism, searched more for social support and experienced more "up and down" in the process of adaptation. If the first child was handicapped mothers coped more by "mastery" than mothers of a second born handicapped child and more by "expression" than fathers.
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PMID:[Coping strategies of mothers and fathers with a first- or second-born mentally handicapped child]. 801 22

Dutch type periodic fever (DPF) is an autosomal recessive hereditary fever syndrome. Cases have been reported worldwide, the majority from France and The Netherlands. From infancy the patients suffer fever attacks that recur every 2-8 weeks, often precipitated by immunizations, infections or emotional stress. Fever lasts 2-7 days and can be accompanied by malaise, headache, diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting, skin rashes, arthralgia, arthritis, tender lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly, and oral and genital ulcers. Laboratory evaluation during fever shows granulocytosis and elevated acute phase reactants. DPF is caused by a deficiency of the enzyme mevalonate kinase (MK). Besides DPF, the spectrum of MK deficiency includes a severe phenotype, mevalonic aciduria (MA). MA patients have less residual MK activity, leading to substantially higher urinary mevalonic acid excretion than in DPF. Mevalonic aciduria is characterized by mental retardation and dysmorphic features in addition to the clinical features of DPF. At the genomic level, several mutations of varying severity have been identified. The DPF phenotype is caused by one particular mild missense mutation. Most patients are compound heterozygotes for this mutation and a more severe mutation. The mechanism by which MK deficiency leads to fever is not understood. The vast majority of DPF patients have persistently elevated serum IgD and can be classified as having hyperimmunoglobulinemia D and periodic fever syndrome (HIDS). Conversely, most HIDS patients have MK deficiency and hence DPF, but the two disorders do not overlap entirely.
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PMID:Mevalonate kinase deficiency and Dutch type periodic fever. 1094 35

Diagnostic and prognostic uncertainty is one of the major psychological stressors for patients in acute and chronic illness, as well as for parents of children with disabilities or chronic disease. Whereas the parents' feeling of uncertainty is undoubtedly very strong shortly after the birth of a child with disabilities, the long-term effects on the parents of having or not having a precise genetic diagnosis, in terms of emotional stress, remain unclear. In this study, mothers of non-disabled children are compared to mothers of children with Down syndrome, and to mothers of children with a diagnostically unassigned mental retardation with regard to the level of anxiety, feelings of guilt, and emotional burden. While the mothers of children with Down syndrome score comparably to the mothers of non-disabled children, the results show broad psychoemotional disadvantages for mothers of children with a mental retardation of unknown etiology. Consequently, the value of genetic diagnosis of infantile disabilities encompasses, beyond clinical considerations like therapy planning and assignment of the recurrence risk for siblings, significant and long-lasting emotional relief for the parents.
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PMID:Psychological benefit of diagnostic certainty for mothers of children with disabilities: lessons from Down syndrome. 1566 6

Although the policy of deinstitutionalization encourages parents to raise a child with development disability at home, professionals are becoming increasingly aware of these parents' care-giving roles. Immigrant parents from the ex-USSR who have children with developmental disabilities are potential clients for placement, but to date, the tendency in Israel to out-of-home placement by immigrant parents, compared with Israeli-born parents, has not been studied. The placement variables were examined as a function of place of birth, emotional stress and social support. The sample was 100 parents who have children aged 6-21 years with mild to moderate mental retardation (according to the American Association on Mental Retardation definition) who live at home. Fifty parents were immigrants (arrived in Israel after 1990) and 50 were Israeli-born. They live in the region of Haifa and the north of Israel. The following measurements were carried out: (1) Demographic Questionnaire for data such as place of birth, age, socioeconomic status, etc., (2) Questionnaire of Resources and Stress, (3) Family Support Scale and (4) Out-of-Home Placement Questionnaire. The results showed that parents' readiness to apply for out-of-home placement proved to be related to their stress level and child's age, regardless of their origin (immigrants or Israeli-born) and regardless of social support resources. The older the children with mental retardation and the higher the stress levels felt by their parents, the higher was these parents' potential to apply for out-of-home placement. Immigrant parents tended to report a significantly higher level of stress than Israeli-born parents. No difference was found in the social support resources available to both research groups. Immigrant parents' stress level was higher as the child's mental retardation level was more moderate and their time in Israel was longer. Stress level among Israeli-born parents was higher among those who were religious, were of lower socioeconomic status and/or when, in addition to the mental retardation, the child suffered from other medical problems. In conclusion, families with children with mental retardation should be referred to services in an integrative way, regardless of the origin of the children's parents. Professionals must increase their own awareness of parents' level of stress and its impact on their readiness to apply for out-of-home placement. Recommendations for practical work and for future researches are made.
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PMID:Out-of-home placement of children with intellectual disability: Israeli-born parents vs. new immigrants from the ex-USSR. 1631 57