ABSTRACT
Total population studies, as well as studies of children selected for neurological rather than psychiatric disorders, have shown that children with unequivocal brain damage or epilepsy have considerably higher rates of psychiatric, learning, and cognitive problems than children who are neurologically intact. The neurological signs include involuntary movements of a choreic or athetoid type, motor abnormalities such as synkinesis, dysdiadochokinesis and general clumsiness, as well as sensory integrative abnormalities, in particular, astereognosis and dysgraphesthesia. The chapter examines the relationship between minor neurological signs in childhood and both psychiatric and cognitive disorders in adolescence. The relationship between neurological dysfunction and affective disorder has been reviewed extensively and there is convincing evidence of its importance. Regardless of the mechanisms that might explain the relationship, the findings suggest the neurological examination of the 7-year-olds yields information of potential value in the prediction of later adjustment difficulties and psychiatric disorder.
