A study on the late consequences of a brain trauma in early childhood (BTEC).
Among children causing educational difficulties there is, according to the author, a much greater number of encephalopaths with BTEC than it is commonly assumed. Better diagnostic methods help more and more often to diagnose organic changes in the so-called difficult children. The present report gives a clinical picture of encephalopathy after BTEC. Studies were made on a group of 500 children who had suffered brain trauma of various kinds during their foetal life or early childhood. Symptoms of the infantile psychoorganic syndrome and character disorders were the most significant features of encephalopathy after BTEC. Furthermore, the children presented changes in the EEG and a lowered IQ score (not very markedly, as a rule). Focal neurological changes were rare. Basing on the fact that character disorders are a most typical feature of encephalopathy, the author classified encephalopaths as belonging either to the group of bradykinesia or that of hyperkinesia. Each of these groups has further been subdivided into those comprising the common, the asocial and the anxious type, according to the encephalopaths' attitude toward their environment.
D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000209:etiology; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000209:etiology*; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000150:complications*; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications*; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000209:etiology; D007360:Intelligence; D019965:Neurocognitive Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D010553:Personality Development; D012917:Social Adjustment