PREMATURE INFANTS IN LATER LIFE

[摘要] Physically: A few physical defects were found consisting of malnourishment, dwarfism, obesity, hypothyroidism, congenital absence of tooth buds, scoliosis and cryptorchidism. One child showed keratitis at birth. Eleven children were hyperopic. The condition of the eyes leads to the conclusion that the eyes of the premature may be frequently defective. Otherwise it is difficult to say that prematurity itself effects the physical growth.Intellectually: The I.Q.'s of the 22 children studied ranged from two of the high grade moron group, upward, with a fair distribution, to two I.Q.'s in the very superior intelligence group. Prematurity per se seemingly has neither a beneficial nor detrimental effect on intelligence except that a more than average percentage of premature infants suffer intracranial hemorrhage as a result of being born prematurely. In these studies, one was definitely diagnosed as having brain damage at birth, and others were suspected of this damage. This seemingly appears in the I.Q. results with a higher than expected incidence of mild mental retardation. Using birth weight as a criterion there was no relation between the degree of prematurity and the resultant I.Q.Emotionally: Personality test results in addition to the information gleaned from the psychologic interviews and the histories show that over half have made unsatisfactory or below average personality adjustment. Contributing factors were found including prematurity, overprotection by the parents, and poor physical endowment. Twelve of the 22 had personalities of the submissive passive type. Eight of the 22 showed unusual aggressive tendencies. Other behavior aberrations uncovered were nail biting, two cases of habit spasms and one case of chronic masturbation. It is suggested that study of premature infants who are necessarily deprived of immediate postnatal maternal tenderness may finally offer a basis for assessing the theory that such tenderness is necessary.

[学科分类] 儿科学