The Presentation of Mental Illness in Mentally Retarded Adults

Summary A survey of 1507 mentally handicapped adults in a long-stay hospital, three-quarters of whom were severely subnormal, led to the identification of 42 (2.8 per cent of the total group) with a current typical affective illness. Non-verbal 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 per cent) of the patients, none of whom was preverbal in mental level. Forty-one (2.7 per cent) had an atypical affective illness superimposed on an early childhood psychosis. Half of these patients were preverbal, so that the pattern of their illness was particularly difficult to recognize.

[1]  J. Gould.  Language development and non-verbal skills in severely mentally retarded children: an epidemiological study. , 2008, Journal of mental deficiency research.

[2]  A. H. Reid,et al.  Diagnosis of Psychiatric Disorder in the Severely and Profoundly Retarded Patient , 1980, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.

[3]  L. Wing,et al.  Severe impairments of social interaction and associated abnormalities in children: Epidemiology and classification , 1979, Journal of autism and developmental disorders.

[4]  J. Pollitt.  The depressed patient. , 1978, The Practitioner.

[5]  Alan Heaton-Ward.  Psychosis in Mental Handicap , 1977, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[6]  Forrest Ad,et al.  The prevalence of psychiatric illness in a hospital for the mentally handicapped. , 1974 .

[7]  J. Pollitt.  Etiological, clinical and therapeutic aspects of depression. , 1971, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine.

[8]  G. Brown,et al.  Institutionalism and Schizophrenia: Institutionalism and schizophrenia: summary, discussion and conclusions , 1970 .

[9]  R. Payne.  The Psychotic Subnormal , 1968 .

[10]  T. Mckeown,et al.  Medical and social needs of patients in hospitals for the mentally subnormal. , 1967, British journal of preventive & social medicine.

[11]  H. Sutherland,et al.  A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE PREMENSTRUAL SYNDROME. , 1965, Lancet.

[12]  Schizophrenic Syndrome in Childhood: Further Progress Report of a Working Party (April, 1964) , 1964 .

[13]  Roberts Cj.  Schizophrenic Syndrome in Childhood , 1961, British medical journal.

[14]  H. M. Pollock.  MENTAL DISEASE AMONG MENTAL DEFECTIVES , 1944 .

[15]  A. Myerson,et al.  THE INCIDENCE OF MANIC-DEPRESSIVE PSYCHOSIS IN CERTAIN SOCIALLY IMPORTANT FAMILIES , 1941 .

[16]  J. Haldane,et al.  A Clinical and Genetic Study of 1,280 Cases of Mental Defect , 1938, Mental Welfare.

[17]  E. Slater.  The Inheritance of Manic-Depressive Insanity and its Relation to Mental Defect , 1936 .

[18]  A. Duncan.  Mental Deficiency and Manic-Depressive Insanity , 1936 .

[19]  P. Topinard,et al.  The Social Problem. , 1898 .

[20]  F. Fish.  Clinical presentation and classification of Schizophrenia. , 1975, The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science.

[21]  A. Forrest,et al.  The prevalence of psychiatric illness in a hospital for the mentally handicapped. , 1974, Health bulletin.

[22]  K. Dalton.  The menstrual cycle , 1969 .

[23]  J. Tizard,et al.  The social problem of mental deficiency , 1956 .