Functional bent of central nervous system: neonatal hyperreactivity and developmental disorders. A 10-year follow-up...

The relevance of newborn individuality to subsequent course of childhood has long been controversial. This study was designed to find out whether neonatal hyperreactivity influences signs and symptoms that appear in childhood. A reactivity test administered to 1184 healthy term newborns identified two populations: hyperreactives and normoreactives. Ninety-four hyperreactives and 80 normoreactives were followed up periodically to the age of 10 years. Hyperreactives had a significantly higher frequency of developmental disorders. Their parents' histories showed a higher frequency of the same disorders than that of normoreactives' parents. The importance of heredity in the genesis of hyperreactivity implies that hyperreactivity depends on the nervous system.