Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:12:57.727Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Case and Kindred in Mental Deficiency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

B. W. Richards*
Affiliation:
St. Lawrence's Hospital, Caterham, Surrey

Extract

The analysis of family data in the hope of detecting a recognizable pattern in the distribution of disease may be of value in respect of cause and of prevention. The recognition of classical Mendelian ratios, for instance, is both a partial explanation and an opportunity for genetic counselling which may lead relatives to take eugenic measures. In mentally subnormal populations, however, the occurrence of disease in families often shows more complicated distributions. From knowledge of the relationship between cause and distribution models may be constructed with which empirical data may be compared, for instance, in maternal-foetal incompatibility in respect of some antigen, or in polygenically determined diseases showing threshold effects in liability to disease.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1974 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Butterworth's Medical Dictionary (1965) London: Butterworths.Google Scholar
Cohen, B. E. (1971) In Synopsis of Discussion. In Phenylketonuria and Some Other Inborn Errors of Amino-Acid Metabolism (eds. Bickel, H., Hudson, F. P. & Woolf, L. I.). Stuttgart: George Thieme.Google Scholar
Cowie, Valerie, Harris, Ruth F. & Stern, J. (1973) Changes in the heterozygotes for phenylketonuria. Proc. 3rd Congr. Int. Ass. Sci. Study ment. Defic. (The Hague, 1973). Amsterdam: Swets and Zeitlinger. In press.Google Scholar
Crome, L. C. & Stern, J. (1972) The Pathology of Mental Retardation. Edinburgh and London: Churchill Livingstone.Google ScholarPubMed
Davison, , Clare, B. C. (1973) Familial idiopathic severe subnormality: The question of a contribution by X-linked genes. Brit. J. Psychiat. Spec, Publ. No. 8. Google Scholar
Halperin, S. L. (1945) A clinico-genetical study of mental defect. Amer. J. ment. Defic., 50, 8.Google ScholarPubMed
Hsia, D. Y-Y. (1971) In Synopsis of Discussion. In Phenylketonuria and Some Other Inborn Errors of Amino-Acid Metabolism (as above).Google Scholar
Penrose, L. S. (1938) A Clinical and Genetic Study of 1,280 cases of Mental Defect (Colchester Survey). Sp. Rep. Ser. Med. Res. Coun. No. 229. London: H.M.S.O.Google Scholar
Penrose, L. S. (1946) On the familial appearances of maternal and foetal incompatibility. Ann. Eugen., 13, P.2, 141.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Penrose, L. S. (1972) The Biology of Mental Defect, 4th ed. London: Sidgwick and Jackson Ltd.Google Scholar
Roberts, J. A. F. (1952) The genetics of mental deficiency. Eugen. Rev., 44, 71.Google ScholarPubMed
Saugstadt, L. P. (1972) Birthweights in children with phenylketonuria and in their siblings. Lancet, i, 809.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.