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Mentally Retarded Definition:
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Subnormal general intellectual functioning which originates during the developmental period and is associated with impairment of learning and social adjustment or maturation.
Related Terms:
Mentally Ill,
Incompetency,
Non Compos Mentis
Significantly subaverage intellectual functioning.
Mental retardation is a mental disorder which is usually congenital, usually observed and diagnosed from birth or in childhood.
The American Psychiatric Association, in their DSM-IV Manual defines mental retardation as follows:
"Significantly subaverage intellectual functiong - an IQ of approximately 70 or below - with onset before the age of 18 years and concurrent deficits or impairments in adaptive functioning."
According to the DSM-IV catalogue of mental disorders, mental retardation can be:
- Mild;
- Moderate;
- Severe; or
- Profound.
But other publications1 suggest five classes of severity: borderline (an IQ of 68-83), mild, moderate, severe and profound, whereas some general medicine publications suggest eight scales of severity.
Mental retardation is distuiguished, as a mental disorder, from learning, attention deficit or anxiety disorders.
REFERENCES:
- American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Stastical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. (Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 2000)
- Duhaime, Lloyd, Duhaime's Legal Dictionary
- Duhaime, Lloyd, Duhaime's Legal Citations & Abbreviations
- Schmidt, J.E., Attorney's Dictionary of Medicine, Volume 4 (Newark, New Jersey: LexisNexis, 2009), page M-133 (note 1)
- Woody, R. H., Legal Aspects of Mental Retardation (Springfield, Ill: Charles C. Thomas Publisher, 1974)
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