[Intelligence tests in patients suffering from chronic rhinopathy (author's transl)]

In 100 patients referred to the allergy clinic of the First Otolaryngological University Hospital of Vienna because of chronic rhinopathy an exact allergy diagnosis was carried out, comprising anamneses, skin tests and laboratory tests (Rast, Prist). The test results have yielded two or three diagnosis groups: patients with rhinitis vasomotorica nonallergica, rhinitis vasomotorica allergica, and pollinosis. In addition, in all patients an intelligence test by means of WIP (a short form of HAWIE) was carried out. The IQ of all patients tested is, on the average, significantly above the average of the normal population, the variation in all three groups being significantly below the average of the normal population. The reason for the low degree of variation is that patients with low IQ values were missing. Earlier tests carried out by this clinic (allergy-screening test in 3500 school pupils) had shown that the percentage of allergy patients among pupils with low IQs (special schools) and other children (secondary-schools) cannot be assumed to be of a varying degree. This fact demonstrates that although allergy patients with below-average intellectual ability do exist, they obviously do not consult the respective special clinics. This paper tries to explain this phenomenon and suggests that the socially lower strata be increasingly informed about the problem of allergy.