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Query: UMLS:C0917816 (mental retardation)
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Poor nutrition can adversely affect a child's mental and physical life. Malnutrition in a severe form can lead to mental retardation, and, through increased susceptability to disease, death. It is important ot introduce a variety of foods early in an infant's life, especially dark leafy vegatables and low-cost proteins, such as fish. Breast-feeding, too, is important. In underdeveloped countries especially it has been found that the larger the family, the smaller the amount of nutrients for each family member. That is why health workers who deal with family planning should concern themselves with nutrition. Only when nutrition education is combined with family planning can we expect to find vast improvements in both the physical and mental quality of human life.
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PMID:Nutrition and family health. 449 13

The spine morphology of LV--pyramidal neurons in the cingulate cortex was analyzed, using drawings of apical side dendrites without ramifications, by light microscopical analysis of 5300 times magnification in GOLGI-preparations of the brains of 11 and 60 days old control rats as well as of experimental animals reared under starvation conditions from day 1 till day 60 of their postnatal life. The spine density and the relative frequency of three different spine types (thin, mushroom and stubby shaped) was estimated in control and undernourished animals. Undernutrition resulted in a considerable deficit in the spine number of 25% in 11 days old animals, respectively, of 41% in 60 days old animals. Additionally, in 60 days old undernourished rats changes in the relative frequency of the three spine types was found. To the thin type belonged 46% (68% in controls) to the mushroom shaped form 37% (19% in controls) and to the stubby type 16% (13% in controls) of all visible spines. This pattern in 60 days old undernourished rats was very similar to the pattern of 11 days old control animals (thin 43%, mushroom 36%, stubby 22%). The evaluate the differentiation of the dendritic spines during ontogenesis as well as the disturbing influence of undernutrition on these processes, additional data of the spine morphology (neck length and head area) were collected. The spines of the 11 days old animals showed a larger head area (undernourished and controls) than the young adult ones. However, the thin spine type present in 60 days old undernourished rats exhibits morphological features (extremely long necks of about 2,5 micron in comparison to 1,6 micron in controls as well as very large heads) which appeared to be quite similar to the thin and long spine type observed by PURPURA (1975) in human fetal cortex and in cortex of patients with mental retardation. This super long thin spine type is considered to be a less ripe stage of the spine development. The relative high portion of mushroom and stubby shaped spines in undernourished and young animals points to the same assumption or to degenerative changes in the experimental animals.
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PMID:[Effect of nonspecific malnutrition on spine morphology of lamina V pyramidal cells of the cingulate area of juvenile and adult rats]. 644 22

On the basis of examining 86 senile schizophrenics with defective initial conditions two groups of such conditions were specified: 1) defect conditions retaining the structure specific for schizophrenia (apathic defect, apathic mental deficiency and its variant with pseudosenile disturbances); 2) defect conditions, approaching by their manifestations to the picture of psychic disintegration associated with senile dementia. The psychopathological structure of the first group of defect conditions primarily reflects the degree of the schizophrenia progression. Their time course in old age was limited to insignificant age-related modifications and decompensation. Deficit conditions in the second group develop the more frequently, the closer to old age the period of the maximum activity of the schizophrenic process and the older the patients.
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PMID:[Status of profound deficits during the late stages of schizophrenia with a unfavorable course]. 646 90

Morbidity and mortality patterns were examined among 968 pediatric patients on the island of Dominica. These children, whose ages ranged from newborn to 13 years, were seen by the consulting pediatrician at Princess Margaret Hospital during a 9-month period in 1978-79; 852 children were seen as inpatients. A total of 477 cases of infectious disease were diagnosed among inpatients alone. Stool examination in a subsample of these children revealed parasites (mostly Trichuris) in roughly half. Also found was a relatively high prevalence of chronic health problems, especially rheumatic heart disease (34 cases), mental retardation (28 cases), epilepsy (31 cases), and sickle cell anemia (21 cases). Examination of the hospital records of 100 of the inpatients ages 6 months-5 years demonstrated that 34% were low weight-for-age according to the World Health Organization classification. There were 34 deaths (9 pediatric patients and 255 newborns). The high neonatal mortality is attributed to an unusually high incidence of immaturity and prematurity, irregular and insufficient hospital oxygen supply, and a septicemia epidemic. Although these findings reflect patterns of the more serious diseases, they could be useful in planning preventive health measures. The high prevalence of malnutrition points to a need for nutrition education, promotion of breastfeeding, promotion of vegetable growing, and the introduction of a home-based growth chart. The high incidence of diarrhea, typhoid fever, and helminthiases highlights problems with general hygiene, latrines, and water supply. There is also a need for follow-up facilities for children with rheumatic heart disease, epilepsy, and sickle cell anemia. It is suggested that hospital care could be improved by dividing pediatric and neonatology wards into 5 units: isolation ward, malnutrition ward, semi-intensive care unit, general pediatrics, and pediatric surgery.
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PMID:Morbidity and mortality patterns among pediatric patients in Dominica (West Indies). 662 10

Nutrition programs and family planning programs have a mutual impact on each other and nutrition and family planning services can be provided in an integrated program; however, an integrated approach is not absolutely necessary as individual programs can also be beneficial. Reductions in population growth and family size can contribute toward inproving nutritional standards by increasing the available per capita food supply. Nutritional programs can promote family planning by reducing infant and child mortality. The proportion of the population in developing countries suffering from malnutrition ranges from 25%-75%. Major nutritional problems are anemia caused by iron and folate deficiency, goiter caused by iodine deficiency, and blindness caused by Vitamin A deficiency. Severe clinical malnutrition gives rise to pellegra, beriberi, and other serious disease which can be easily recognized and diagnosed. Only 2-3% of a poorly fed population suffers from severe clinical malnutrition. Most of the individuals in a poorly fed population suffer milder forms of malnutrition which are harder to diagnose. During the 1st stage of malnutrition body stores of needed materials decline. There are no outward clinical manifestations of this decline and the problem can be detected only through biochemical measurement. During later stages as organ dysfunction, tissue damage, and irreversible damage occurs the clinical signs become increasing apparent. The effects of poor nutrition on children include 1) reduced growth rates; 2) impairment of the body's defense system for fighting infection; and 3) mental retardation. The effects of poor nutrition on adults are more difficult to identify, but a number of studies indicate that work output is significantly decreased by malnutrition.
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PMID:Nutrition policies and population policies. 746 17

A new case of Johanson-Blizzard's syndrome is reported. It concerns a boy born to consanguineous parents and who died at the age of 10 months from malnutrition. Anal imperforation, alar agenesia, hair anomalies, mental retardation and external pancreatic failure were associated. Neither deafness nor hypothyroidism appeared to be present. Autopsy revealed lipomatous hypoplasia of the exocrine pancreas, hitherto unobserved in this syndrome, and probably responsible for the external pancreatic failure noted in published cases. The variability within a given family of the Johanson-Blizzard malformative syndrome is illustrated by two other cases reported in the anamnesis, one involving a brother who had died earlier with cutaneous aplasia at the fontanella and lacrimal canal malposition and one involving a second cousin who presented with isolated anal imperforation.
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PMID:[Johanson-Blizzard's syndrome: another cause of pancreatic lipomatosis (author's transl)]. 746 79

Our conceptions of how malnutrition endured early in life affects brain development have evolved considerably since the mid-1960s. At that time, it was feared that malnutrition endured during certain sensitive periods in early development would produce irreversible brain damage possibly resulting in mental retardation and an impairment in brain function. We now know that most of the alterations in the growth of various brain structures eventually recover (to some extent), although permanent alterations in the hippocampus and cerebellum remain. However, recent neuropharmacological research has revealed long-lasting, if not permanent, changes in brain neural receptor function resulting from an early episode of malnutrition. These more recent findings indicate that the kinds of behaviors and cognitive functions impaired by malnutrition may be more related to emotional responses to stressful events than to cognitive deficits per se, the age range of vulnerability to these long-term effects of malnutrition may be much greater than we had suspected and the minimal amount of malnutrition (hunger) necessary to produce these long-term alterations is unknown.
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PMID:Malnutrition and the brain: changing concepts, changing concerns. 754 3

Iodine is a trace element present in the human body in minute amounts (15-20 mg in adults, i.e. 0.0285 x 10(-3)% of body weight). The only confirmed function of iodine is to constitute an essential substrate for the synthesis of thyroid hormones, tetraiodothyronine, thyroxine or T4 and triiodothyronine, T3 (1). In thyroxine, iodine is 60% by weight. Thyroid hormones, in turn, play a decisive role in the metabolism of all cells of the organism (2) and in the process of early growth and development of most organs, especially of the brain (3). Brain development in humans occurs from fetal life up to the third postnatal year (4). Consequently, a deficit in iodine and/or in thyroid hormones occurring during this critical period of life will result not only in the slowing down of the metabolic activities of all the cells of the organism but also in irreversible alterations in the development of the brain. The clinical consequence will be mental retardation (5). When the physiological requirements of iodine are not met in a given population, a series of functional and developmental abnormalities occur (Table 1), including thyroid function abnormalities and, when iodine deficiency is severe, endemic goiter and cretinism, endemic mental retardation, decreased fertility rate, increased perinatal death, and infant mortality. These complications, which constitute an hindrance to the development of the affected population, are grouped under the general heading of Iodine Deficiency Disorders, IDD (6). Broad geographic areas exist in which the population is affected by IDD.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Iodine deficiency in Europe. 771 23

Analysis of the data collected from national sampling survey of the mental retarded in 1987 showed: (1) prevalence of mental retardation in China was 12.68/1,000, (2) its causes mainly included hereditary diseases, cerebral diseases, malnutrition, pregnant infection and birth trauma for children and senile dementia for the elderly aged 60 or over, (3) severe mental retardation was mainly caused by cerebral diseases and developmental deformity in the country, and (4) the causes for 40.1% of the mental retarded persons remained unknown. Based on the researches at home and abroad, a series of major preventive measures for mental retardation have been put forward, they included: (1) to promote better birth and better rearing, vaccination, proper nutrition for pregnant mothers and infants, and safety education as focuses in primary prevention, (2) to detect early and timely treat cerebral diseases and nutritional deficiency, to strengthen antenatal diagnosis and early screening for inborn metabolic diseases as secondary prevention, and (3) to strengthen education, behavioral training and psychological rehabilitation, and to provide community-based rehabilitation service for the mental retarded as tertiary prevention.
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PMID:[Preliminary analysis of factors causing mental retardation in China]. 784 93

Following the 1990 World Summit for Children, the annual report of UNICEF detailed progress to the Summit's goals it set for the year 2000. The targets are a 33% reduction in under-5 mortality, halving child malnutrition and maternal mortality rates, and 90% immunization coverage of major childhood diseases. Over 85 states are signed up with national programs to mobilize not only health services but to extend it to schools, media, religious leaders, and businesses. The maternal mortality rate of 1 in 20 in Africa compares with 1 in 3600 in North America; and under-5 mortality rates of 5 in 1000 in Sweden are compared with 300/1000 in Niger. 61 countries are still likely to double their population in the next 35 years, and millions of women have no access to birth control programs. Mental retardation caused by lack of iodine in the diet claims an estimated 6 million victims. There are also the familiar problems created by diarrhea, measles, and bottle feeding. On the other hand, the new UNICEF report, The Progress of Nations, demonstrates that in little more than 1 generation average real incomes have doubled; child death rates have halved; malnutrition has fallen by about 30% (only 1 or 2% of the world's children are affected by visible malnutrition); life expectancy has increased by about 33%; modern contraceptive use by couples has risen from less than 10% to over 50% since 1960; and average family size is declining in almost every country. In just a decade measles immunization coverage of the developing world's children has risen from 20% to 80% saving 3 million young lives a year and preventing 50 million other children from catching a nonfatal dose. Nevertheless, these gains are thwarted by the existence of millions of malnourished and uneducated children whose prospects for future employment are constrained by polio, blindness, deafness, and mental retardation.
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PMID:UNICEF's goals for 2000 AD. 810 79


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