Motormental Retardation

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Common Causes

BEFORE BIRTH causes include:

• asphyxia (insufficient oxygen before or during birth)
• cerebral hemorrhage
• congenital rubella syndrome
• congenital toxoplasmosis
• chromosomal abnormalities (excessive numbers or reduced numbers), such as trisomy 13, trisomy 18, trisomy 21 (Down syndrome)
• abnormalities of the chromosome (with normal number of chromosomes), such as Fragile X syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, Angelman syndrome
• Fetal alcohol syndrome

INFANCY/CHILDHOOD causes include:

• infection -- meningitis and/or encephalitis (Organisms can include virus, bacteria, or parasites. Some infectious agents include: HIV infection, Herpes Simplex virus, toxoplasmosis, cytomegalovirus, listeria, H. influenza)
• traumatic -- head injury, shaken-baby syndrome, asphyxia (such as near drowning)
• non-genetic metabolic disorders -- kernicterus, hypoglycemia, Reye's syndrome, congenital hypothyroidism (untreated)
• genetic metabolic disorders -- phenylketonuria (if untreated), histidinemia
• intraventricular hemorrhage (as seen in very premature infants)
• other heritable disorders -- Tay-Sachs disease, Aicardi syndrome, Niemann-Pick disease.
• environmental or toxins -- lead poisoning, methyl mercury exposure (Minamata disease)