The usefulness of a diagnostic study of mental retardation

INTRODUCTION: The etiological diagnosis of mental retardation is of interest for several reasons, such as being able to inform parents of the risk of recurrence, and offer the possibility of prenatal diagnosis when possible. It is therefore not surprising that doctors use all means available for this, although the real usefulness of this has not been fully studied. OBJECTIVE: To find the frequency with which an etiological diagnosis is made after relevant investigations. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We describe a retrospective study of persons aged between 0 and 14 years, who were seen by specialists in the hospitals of Gandia and Denia over a period of 7 years. Cases in which the diagnosis was already known or there was isolated motor or language retardation were excluded from the study. RESULTS: An etiological diagnosis was established in 15.4% of the 65 children who fulfilled the criteria of inclusion or exclusion. CONCLUSIONS: The little help obtained from the tests done, and the fact that the number of such tests did not affect the possibility of reaching a diagnosis, made us reconsider the habitual complementary investigations. It would be useful if other centres carried out similar studies so that the results may be compared.