Degrees of oligophrenia: general and specific features

Anomalies of mental development are classified as pathologies, which, when detected, require an establishment of the level of cognitive capabilities of the patient and determination of the state of his psyche. For this purpose, graduation of dementia of the degree of oligophrenia is used in psychiatry, determined by the general and specific features of the varieties of this pathological condition.

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The severity of oligophrenia

How are the degrees of mental retardation determined? Based on the survey: testing the development of intelligence (including thinking, memory and speech), assessing the level and characteristics of motor activity (coordination of movements, the range of fine motor skills), studying the emotional-volitional characteristics of the patient and associated behavioral responses, etc.

The survey data allow us to draw preliminary conclusions about the localization of damage to brain structures. For example, in speech disorders in right-handers, the defect may be in the left hemisphere (in the lower frontal, lower parietal lobe or thalamus). Confirm or refute the assumption helps measure brain activity (encephalography) and computed tomography of the brain.

In addition to underdevelopment of speech (limited vocabulary and the inability to explain the meaning of the simplest words), oligophrenia in the degree of debility or oligophrenia of 1 degree is manifested:

• delay in physical development (in comparison with age norms);
• the disorder of abstract thinking and imagination (patients have a specific and descriptive type of thinking);
• low memory capacity and instability of attention;
• fragmented general perception of the environment;
• suggestibility, lack of purposefulness and various disorders in the manifestation of emotions.

This is the easiest degree of oligophrenia, in which the average IQ (the level of intellectual development) is 50 to 69 points.

Then follows the oligophrenia of the 2nd degree (of moderate or moderate severity), defined in psychiatry as oligophrenia in the degree of imbecility. At this degree of mental retardation, there are:

• a deep lag in the development of intelligence (IQ at 20-49);
• underdevelopment of speech (short simple phrases or lack of phrasal speech, use of gesticulation);
• understanding simple in the content of speech;
• a significant violation of memory, a complete lack of cognitive interests;
• great lag in physical development (children start to walk late, coordination of movements is broken);
• difficulties in self-service and simple actions;
• absence or weakening of the will;
• underdevelopment or lack of higher emotions;
• emotional instability, affective disorders, psychoses.

Oligophrenia in the degree of idiocy, according to the rarely used to date classical classification of this pathology, is oligophrenia of the third degree, in which disturbances in the development of the brain and the central nervous system are of a total nature and are expressed:

• in the absence of conscious thought and intelligent speech;
• in complete detachment from the outside world (inability to recognize objects of people, including their relatives); in the absolute backwardness of children in physical development;
• in difficulty or total inability to perform purposeful actions (hold a spoon, cup, etc.), lack of coordination of movements, disorderly reflex gesticulation (or complete immobility).

Idiocy is the most severe degree of oligophrenia, caused by gross defects in many structures of the brain. The intellect is developed in the range of 0-20, and patients are not able to exist without constant care.

It should be noted that, regardless of the severity of oligophrenia, the diagnosis of oligophrenia is never formulated at birth even in the case of Down syndrome. This is done after reaching 18 months. If there are disturbing signs of mental inferiority (for example, changes in the size and proportions of the body, body functions, lethargic reflexes, etc.), the doctor indicates the presence of perinatal encephalopathy in the medical history.