What are the biological causes of mental retardation?

What are the biological causes of mental retardation?

Biological risk factors for mental retardation include malnutrition; exposure to toxins such as lead, alcohol, and PCBs, and being born at LBW. Social in¯ uences from homes, schools, and cultures are related to intelligence and mental retardation although the direction of effect is difficult to determine.

What causes mental retardation in unborn babies?

Causes of mental retardation include fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol effect; brain damage caused by the use of prescription or illegal drugs during pregnancy; brain injury and disease; and genetic disorders, such as Down syndrome and fragile X syndrome.

What are the reasons of abnormal babies?

What causes birth defects?

• Genetic problems. One or more genes might have a change or mutation that results in them not working properly, such as in Fragile X syndrome.
• Chromosomal problems.
• Infections.
• Exposure to medications, chemicals, or other agents during pregnancy.

What four risk factors are associated with causes of intellectual disabilities?

Causes

• Infections (present at birth or occurring after birth)
• Chromosomal abnormalities (such as Down syndrome)
• Environmental.
• Metabolic (such as hyperbilirubinemia, or very high bilirubin levels in babies)
• Nutritional (such as malnutrition)
• Toxic (intrauterine exposure to alcohol, cocaine, amphetamines, and other drugs)

Can MRI detect mental retardation?

MRI allows detection of multiple minor morphological anomalies. Most have classically been considered as normal variants but they may in fact be markers of cerebral dysgenesis and are currently the only anomaly detected in the work-up of patients with mental retardation.

What is federal Alcohol Syndrome?

Fetal alcohol syndrome is a condition in a child that results from alcohol exposure during the mother’s pregnancy. Fetal alcohol syndrome causes brain damage and growth problems. The problems caused by fetal alcohol syndrome vary from child to child, but defects caused by fetal alcohol syndrome are not reversible.

What causes mental retardation in babies?

Drug abuse of substances like cocaine or amphetamines and infections in pregnant women such as German measles (rubella) or toxoplasmosis may harm the mental development of the unborn child leading to babies being born with mental retardation. Maternal malnutrition and exposure to radiation during pregnancy can also cause mental retardation.

Can a child inherit mental retardation?

If one or both parents have mental retardation, there is a much greater chance that their children will also have this condition. Other inherited disorders include as phenylketonuria (PKU) or Tay-Sachs disease. PKU is a birth defect that causes an amino acid called phenylalanine to build up in the body.

What is the relationship between antenatal depression and Child Development?

More recently, maternal antenatal anxiety and/or depression have been shown to predict increased risk for neurodevelopmental disorders in children, and to confer risk for future mental illness. Reports show that elevated levels of antenatal depression and anxiety are associated with poor emotional adjustment in young children [7].

What are the signs of retardation in children?

Children with any form of retardation have behavior problems. So, they are prone to explosive tantrums. Another sign is the difficulty with logical reasoning or the lack of problem-solving skills. The individuals affected by the problem have trouble coming to a conclusion depending on the problem.