Psychiatric disorders in mentally handicapped children: a clinical and follow-up study

The clinical psychiatric syndromes encountered in sixty mentally retarded children treated in a child psychiatric out-patient clinic setting are described. It was possible to classify these syndromes according to the multi-axial classification scheme for psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence. The children were followed-up for some years in many cases and the natural history of these disorders was in the main comparable to that of similar disorders in children of normal intelligence, although there was a tendency for some of the disorders to prove unusually persistent. Sometimes the persistence of these disorders seemed to be related to the children's continuing dependency needs arising from their mental retardation and to stresses within the family circle. The disorders responded reasonably satisfactorily to standard child psychiatric treatment techniques, and child psychiatric services should include the assessment and treatment of psychiatric disorders in mentally handicapped children within their remit.