Causes, classification and degree of oligophrenia

About 3% of babies are currently born with mental retardation and, unfortunately, this figure tends to increase.

What does oligophrenia mean and what is oligophrenia? What are its symptoms and treatment?

Definition of basic concepts in psychology

What does oligophrenia mean? Oligophren - who is he? A photo:

In ICD-10, oligophrenia has code F70-79 and means acquired up to three years or congenital mental retardation caused by brain pathology, incomplete development of the psyche or its delay, characterized by impaired intelligence, leading to complete or partial social maladjustment.

The term "oligophrenia" is derived from the ancient Greek word "ὀλίγος" - small, and "φρήν" - mind.

Causes of pathology

What are the factors of development and is the disease inherited? The causes of oligophrenia are due to multiple factors.

External causes:

Severe infectious diseases of the mother of the child suffered during pregnancy - for example, influenza or rubella.
Intoxication during pregnancy caused by metabolic disorders.
Parasitic diseases of the mother during pregnancy.
Fetal injuries, including those inflicted during complicated childbirth - bruises, blows, squeezing the head of the fetus with forceps, as well as prolonged oxygen starvation during childbirth.

Internal causes:

Heredity, manifested in chromosomal diseases.
Violation of carbohydrate and protein metabolism in the body.
Inflammatory diseases of the brain in early childhood - meningitis, meningoencephalitis.

About 75% of oligophrenia cases are caused by congenital factors.

Classification and species

Oligophrenia is divided into two groups depending on the reasons that led to the disease:

primary - in which mental retardation was acquired by inheritance;
secondary - when oligophrenia became a consequence of the infectious diseases suffered, injuries of the brain, poisoning and metabolic disorders, intoxication.

Also share the following forms of the disease:

I form - hereditary mental retardation against the background of disorders in the development of bone tissue, microcephaly, Down's disease and others.
II form - mental retardation of the child, caused in the prenatal period of its development by infectious and parasitic diseases of the mother.
For example, rubeolar oligophrenia, arising from rubella experienced by the mother during pregnancy.
III form - oligophrenia, triggered by birth trauma, oxygen starvation, as well as illnesses of a child before he reaches the age of three - meningitis, encephalitis, as well as inflicted traumatic brain injury.
IV form - a disease caused by the progression of a congenital disease of a child - for example, defective brain development.

Stages and degrees of development

There are the following stages and degrees of mental retardation:

Oligophrenia in the degree of moronity (Mild oligophrenia):

Easy moronity - with her, a child can study with peers in general education schools only formally, and also cope with the material taught in auxiliary schools, rather successfully adapt to society. A person can master a sufficient amount of knowledge to perform simple labor.
Moderate moronity. In her case, the patient can learn the curriculum at the 8th grade level in an auxiliary school, as well as acquire the skills necessary to carry out simple work activities.
Adequately behaves in ordinary life, however, in unusual situations is lost.
Great moronity. Characterized by a pronounced lack of development of intelligence, a person can master the elementary classes of auxiliary schools. Doing even simple chores can only be done under supervision. Speech defects are often observed, emotions are not expressed, the person is socially maladjusted.

Oligophrenia in the degree of imbecility (Moderate degree of oligophrenia):

Unsharp imbecile. Intellect is less developed than with debility. A person is unable to perform everyday tasks of a simple level, needs constant supervision, can adapt only to the usual conditions. Vocabulary is limited to a few dozen words. A person hardly maintains personal hygiene, is not able to fully serve himself.

Pronounced imbecility. Characterized by a profound decrease in intelligence. A person is not capable of learning in a special school, his interests are limited to physiological needs, self-service is only partially possible. Patients are not always controlled by the work of the pelvic organs, and motility is also impaired.

Oligophrenia in the idiocy stage (Severe oligophrenia). In humans, there is a complete lack of intellectual and speech development, completely lacking self-service skills.

The patient requires constant care for himself, does not control the elementary physiological functions of the body. The body is dysplastic, motor skills are greatly impaired, emotions are simple polar.

Also, these stages of oligophrenia correspond to the following four degrees in functional disorders of the body:

I degree. Includes mental retardation in the stage of mild retardation;
II degree. Corresponds to a moderate stage of moronity, as well as to a complicated type of mild moronity with epileptic seizures;
III degree. Moderate moronity of the complicated type with epileptic seizures and behavioral disorders - a person wanders, his inclinations are disinhibited. Also to this degree are pronounced moronity and not pronounced imbecility;
IV degree. Corresponds to oligophrenia in the stage of idiocy.

Symptoms and signs in children and adults

Oligophrenic pathopsychological syndrome characterized by the inability to learn, form concepts and abstract, as well as primitive thinking.

Oligophrenic Symptom Complex expressed violation of the characteristics of the cognitive sphere:

Perception the patient is narrowed down. It takes a long time for a person to recognize a familiar image. With severe moronity, the patient can hardly distinguish colors, can confuse similar objects in the image. The holistic perception of visual objects is also violated - only some objects are recognized in the picture, only individual details are listed, whereas the content of the map is not considered as a whole.
Memory. The study of new material is associated with considerable difficulties.
The patient is extremely hard to remember new knowledge gained, slowly masters them in practice. The material requires multiple repetitions to memorize.
Unrelated words are remembered for a very long time, after which they are quickly forgotten and cannot be reproduced. The patient badly remembers logical connections between objects.
Structure of thinking characterized by difficulties in the generalization of phenomena, mental processes occur in a slow form, the motivation is poorly pronounced, and abstraction from the situation is difficult. The patient hardly reveals patterns. Determining the differences of objects from each other is also made with difficulty due to the impossibility of identifying their main properties and characteristics.

Analysis of abstract concepts it is impossible, because the patient cannot reveal their main essence, paying attention to their secondary or random signs.

Ability to classify very difficult or missing, because the patient can not group objects according to the main features.

Oligophrenic speech poor vocabulary, both active and passive, decreases with increasing degree of oligophrenia. Words can be used in a meaning that is inappropriate to them or pronounced with distortions.

In the lexicon there are more words that are the names of objects, and do not characterize any concept. The patient may have speech defects. Writing can not form.

Imagination defective, fantasy poorly developed. Events from one's own life are transmitted with difficulty, it is also difficult for the patient to make up a sentence or a story from the words suggested.
Emotional Sphere the patient is scanty. There are no higher feelings, only elementary feelings of satisfying natural needs are observed. Own emotions are rarely realized. A patient can either overestimate his or her own capabilities, or be aware of his inferiority and experience a grudge because of the negative attitude of other people towards him.
Motivation mild. Patients are easily suggestible, while their own volitional activity is low.
Appearance characterized by a weak expression of emotions. Often there is a violation of motor functions.

These symptoms occur regardless of the cause of the oligophrenic syndrome.

Diagnostics

Forms of disease caused by genetic predispositioncurrently can be diagnosed even in the intrauterine development of the child.

At the same time, artificial interruption of pregnancy is possible when oligophrenia is detected in the fetus.

A child is diagnosed with oligophrenia in the first year of life by detecting a complex of relevant symptoms - for example, a child cannot hold his head until the age of one, fix his gaze on any one object, as well as determine the direction of the outgoing sound, there is no smile and noisy in response to the spoken speech.

In the second year of life, mental retardation is diagnosed by the absence of attempts to imitate the behavior of adults, the underdevelopment of motility. Also, the child is not able to understand the speech with which he is addressed.

Diagnosis of severe forms of mental retardation is possible at this early stage.

Preschool child milder forms of oligophrenia are manifested in poor speech development, low vocabulary for the corresponding age. The child can not serve themselves, is emotionally poor.

Treatment, correction, adaptation

Treatment of mental retardation is possible if its cause is impaired metabolism.

In this case, the child is given appropriate drugs, and the success of treatment depends on how much the body absorbs them.

In other cases you can only improve the condition of the patient nootropic drugs, means of improving cerebral circulation, vitamin complexes.

A rehabilitation program for mentally retarded children has also been developed.

Moreover, in case of a diagnosis of mild to moderate oligophrenia, their learning occurs in special kindergartens and boarding schools, in the staff which introduced such a profession as oligophrenic teacher - Specialist in the education and training of mentally retarded children.

In these institutions, children are imparted the necessary skills and knowledge in accordance with the severity of the disease. At the same time, children receive professional education. After graduating from an educational institution, people who have mastered the necessary skills may be employed.

For all forms of diagnosed oligophrenia, the patient is assigned a cash allowance.

How long do oligophrenics live?

Lifespan oligophrenic does not depend on the degree of his mental retardation. To a much greater extent, this is affected by the disease that led to oligophrenia.

The ability of the mentally retarded child to social adaptation, of course, depends to a great extent on the severity of the disease and its causes.

However, an important and specialized education, in the process of which the efforts of relevant specialists in the child the skills necessary for life activity will be maximally developed.

Oligophrenia - psychotherapy: