Effect of Encephalitis Lethargica on the Intelligence of Children

Dawson, Shepherd; Conn, J. C. M.

doi:10.1136/adc.1.6.357

Cited by 12 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Among children under five, the mental development may come to a complete standstill, so that if a child had a mental age of four years at time of onset of the disease, his mental age as an adult would still be about four years. Children affected between the ages of five and fourteen generally show some mental retardation, but if the onset of the disease is delayed until after mental maturity has been attained, the intellectual functions show practically no impairment (8,10).…”

Section: Encephalitis Lethargicamentioning

confidence: 99%

Toxic and organic psychoses.

Page¹

1947

Abnormal Psychology: A Clinical Approach to Psychological Deviants.

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General paresis, formerly known as dementia paralytica, is an organic psychosis resulting from syphilitic infection of the brain. The infection usually occurs in early adult life, but the onset of general paresis is generally delayed until middle life. The average age of patients at time of hospitalization is about forty-five. In recent years, about 6 per cent of first admissions to mental hospitals have been affected with this disease. Male patients exceed females in the ratio of 3 to 1. The incidence rate in urban communities is about three times as high as for rural areas. Foreign-born and native whites are about equally affected, but the incidence among Negroes is four times as great as among whites. With respect to economic and educational status, general-paresis patients are slightly inferior to other mental patients (20,25).Etiology.-All general-paresis patients are infected with syphilis, but less than 5 per cent of persons contracting syphilis develop general paresis (28). When the microscopic organisms responsible for syphilis gain entry into the body, they spread rapidly. The first stage of the disease is identified by a small, painless ulcer, or chancre, which appears at the site of inoculation about three weeks after infection. A month or two later, the second stage of the disease is manifested by the appearance of a generalized skin eruption. During the first and second stages, the skin lesions are teeming with live organisms and the disease is very infectious. Fortunately, however, the lesions soon heal spontaneously, and the disease passes into a latent, noninfectious period lasting 10 to 30 years or more.If the condition remains untreated and the patient's immunological forces are not adequate to check the invasion action of the syphilitic organisms, the disease gradually proceeds to the terti-

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Section: Encephalitis Lethargicamentioning

confidence: 99%

Toxic and organic psychoses.

Page¹

1947

Abnormal Psychology: A Clinical Approach to Psychological Deviants.

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“…His conclusion is that, "The evidence points unmistakably to the fact that like tends to mate with like, where the traits under consideration are such as to be a factor in selection, and even in traits not directly considered but which are related to those facts upon which selection depends." (p. 35) This trend does not, of course, preclude unlike mating in respect to many hundreds of traits for any pair of mates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dawson and Conn (35) studied the effects of encephalitis lethargica on the intelligence of children, by comparing mental ratios of forty-five post-encephalitics tested by Burt's revision of the Binet, with mental ratios of other patients. Average comparative I.Q.…”

Section: Epidemic Encephalitis *mentioning

confidence: 99%

Studies on environmental influences as the affect the development of intelligence.

Schwesinger¹

Heredity and Environment: Studies in the Genesis of Psychological Characteristics.

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“…Unless we consider some physical abnormality which specifically and directly affects the nervous system, such as birth injury (64) or encephalitis lethargica (26), we could continue this analysis on through dental caries (58) and other comparable abnormalities almost indefinitely without finding any significant positive relationship between physical defect and intelligence. Practically every carefully controlled study of these problems indicates a lack of relationship between most of the specific abnormalities and intelligence.…”

Section: Specific Physical Defects and Diseasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental development of children.

Boynton¹,

Boynton²

Psychology of Child Development.

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MENTAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN A. Definitions and TerminologyThere are three terms which are of particular significance in this chapter. The first of these is mind, or mental, the second is intellect, and the third is intelligence. These words are so closely related that one's first reaction may be that they are synonymous. In view of the fact that technically they bear different meanings, however, it may be well for us to give brief consideration to each, with its particular connotations or implications.The word mind, or the adjectival derivative mental, is the broadest in meaning of the three terms. It probably is possible for us to classify as "mental" any form of human behavior which involves awareness, or in which the dominant physiological activity is in the higher cortical centers. Thus, we might consider imagery, or thinking, or reasoning, or intelligence, or memory, or perception as mental phenomena, or as phases of mental experience, though each one of these differs from each other one in some significant way. Mind, then, has become a generic term, rather than a specifically descriptive one, and as such is broader and more inclusive than either of the terms intellect or intelligence. In fact, both intellectual responses and intelligent responses may be said to be but types of mental responses.At this point, it should be remembered that one does not have to accept a dualistic philosophy in order to use a term such as mind, or mental. In the last analysis all forms of human response are physiological; they are but 165

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Effect of Encephalitis Lethargica on the Intelligence of Children

Cited by 12 publications

References 3 publications

Toxic and organic psychoses.

Toxic and organic psychoses.

Studies on environmental influences as the affect the development of intelligence.

Mental development of children.

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