Valproic Acid for the Treatment of Children With Mental Retardation and Mood Symptomatology

Abstract

Most researchers agree that there is a high incidence of psychiatric illness among children with mental retardation. Menolascino1,2 found diagnosable psychiatric disorders in 31 of 616 children who were suspected of being mentally retarded. Of this sample, 24.5% were noted to be "emotionally disturbed." Phillips and Williams3 described the results of 100 psychiatric evaluations of children with mental retardation and assigned the following diagnoses: psychotic symptoms, 38%; neuroses, 5%; personality disorders and other nonpsychiatric disorders, 16%; behavior disorders, 26%; transient situational disorders, 2%; and no psychiatric disorder, 13%. Chess4 and Hassibi5 described behavior disorders in a group of 52 children living with their middle class families who were mildly and borderline mentally retarded.