Mental development, endemic cretinism

Perhaps the most striking illustration of the pervasive developmental effects of thyroid hormones is provided by children with severe thyroid hormone deficiency from early childhood, a condition termed cretinism. This may either be endemic in regions of severe iodine deficiency or sporadic due to failure of the thyroid to develop normally or defects in the synthesis of thyroid hormone. Affected children are dwarfed with short extremities, have mental retardation, and are inactive and listless. Other manifestations include facial puffiness, enlarged tongue, dry and doughy skin, slow heart rate, and decreased body temperature. Eor full recovery, treatment of patients with cretinism must be initiated before these florid features are apparent. Thus, pregnant women in areas of endemic cretinism due to iodine deficiency are supplemented with iodine and aU newborns are screened for thyroid hormone deficiency in many developed nations. 

The objective of this study is to gain better insight into the effects of severe, chronic iodine deficiency on various aspects of the mental and psychomotor development of that part of a population, that does not have the manifest symptoms of endemic cretinism. 

Endemic Occurrence of a disease confined to a community Endemic Cretinism A state resulting from the loss of function of the maternal thyroid gland due to iodine deficiency during pregnancy characterised by mental defect, deaf-mutism and spastic paralysis in its fully developed form... 

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