Double Barr Bodies in Women in Mental Hospitals

Abstract

Sex chromatin studies of the mentally defective have revealed a higher than average prevalence of positive sex chromatin among retarded males, and of double Barr bodies among retarded females (Prader et al., 1958; Israelsohn and Taylor, 1961; Maclean et al., 1962; Anderson et al., 1964; and others). It is not yet clear whether mentally defective women also contain an unusually large number with the XO constitution. That mild mental deficiency is a common accompaniment of an XYY constitution in males has been shown recently (Jacobs et al., 1965; Casey et al., 1966; Price et al., 1966). As yet no epidemiological studies have been reported on the XYY constitution.

Prevalence of Sex‐chromatin Abnormalities Among Female Patients in a Mental Hospital (Sex‐chromatin Percentage in Relation to Age, Diagnosis and Menstrual Cycle)

“…Our findings of one patient with a Turner variation called pure gonadal dysgenesis among 343 patients in a mental hospital and two presumptive cases of triple X mosaic does not give any good evidence of the frequency of Turner's syndrome and triple X mosaic in a mental hospital, but the pooled materials by Olanders (1967), Tsuboi (1967) and the present study comprising a total of 2,917 female patients in psychiatric hospitals gives a frequency of 0.4 per cent, which is higher than expected in the general population (P < 0.01).…”

“…Of the 13 patients with triple X or triple X mosaic found in the studies by Olanders (1967), Tsuboi (1967) and the present study 10 were typical schizophrenic patients (77 per cent). Only two of the 17 patients with Klinefelter's syndrome found in our prevalence and incidence study among 616 patients in a psychiatric hospital had the hospital diagnosis of schizophrenia, one of them was most probably not schizophrenic, but a case of psychogenic psychosis, and the other one was a w e of atypical schizophrenia.…”

Cutis Verticis Gyrata in a Woman With Supernumerary X Chromosomes (46,xx/47,xxx/48,xxxx)

“…These paroxysms in behaviour were matched with paroxysmal activity in her EEG. Psychoses of different kinds, often nonspecific and schizophreniform, are common in cases of anomalies in the sex chromosomes, including the triple-X condition (Kidd et al (1963), Hambert (1966), Olanders (1967Olanders ( , 1968 , Maclean et ul. (1968)).…”

A Psychiatric‐cytogenetic Study of a Female Patient With 45/46/47 Chromosomes and Sex Chromosomes Xo/Xx/XXX

“…Other features noted by the authors were psychomotor retardation, poverty of speech, persecutory ideas, ideas of reference and difficulty of communication. Olanders (1967) found 6 patients with triple X among 1,489 female patients in a mental hospital, four were most probably cases of schizophrenia and 2 were neurotics. Tsuboi (1967) found 5 patients with triple X or triple X mosaic in 5 out of 985 patients in 3 Japanese psychiatric hospitals.…”