Environment and Intelligence: Reversible Impairment of Intellectual Growth in the Syndrome of Abuse Dwarfism

The association of a reversible failure of both statural growth and mental growth associated with child abuse was first ascertained through the study of longitudinal follow-up case records at The Johns Hopkins Hospital (Money, 1977). This syndrome of abuse dwarfism is known also as psychosocial dwarfism, or reversible hyposomatotropinism. Reversible statural and mental growth failure was shown to be typical of the syndrome as a whole, and not only of isolated cases. Rescue from the abusive environment was the decisive determinant for resumption of growth.