Mental status as related to puberty praecox.

Abstract

The present review is a continuation of the earlier review by Kulmann and Stone (38) in which the mental status of 62 children exhibiting somatic signs of puberty praecox was considered. For the period preceding 1928, when the other review was completed, 30 new cases have been discovered in the literature. For the fiveyear period, 1928 through 1932, with which the present report is concerned, 50 cases have been reviewed. Thus, in the present review the total number of cases to be considered is 80.

A Case of Precocious Puberty in a Female

“…Most reports of precocious sexual development deal mainly with the somatic aspects of the cases, but in more recent studies psychological reports are available. Keene and Stone (1937) in their review of 80 cases, reported that only 15 patients were tested for intelligence, and that the mental development of these was somewhat below the average. Other workers (Leiner, 1920;Gesell, Thoms, Hartman and Thompson, 1939;Seckel, 1950;Jolly, 1955) have also reported average intelligence, and use this as evidence that mental growth is not affected by the sexual precocity.…”

Psychological Aspects of Accelerated Pubertal Development

“…So far as mental development is concerned there appear to be as many cases of precocious puberty reported with above average as below average intelligence. Earlier studies such as those of Leiner (1920) and Keene and Stone (1937) suggested that these patients tended to be below average in intelligence. This was perhaps because only subjective observations were made or a very small proportion were tested, and incongruity between mature physical appearances and child-like conduct may have given an impression of characteristically low level mental behaviour.…”

“…Wilkins, however, does mention the need to consider the relative roles of environment, hormonal and chromosomal factors in determining psychological development in these cases, and in the second edition of his book refers to "indicators of maturity" (among which he includes mental tests) in assessing the state of development. Very early surveys by Leiner (1920) and Doe-Kulman and Stone (1927) emphasize "psychical" data of an observational kind, and other studies, for example Keene and Stone (1937) and Jolly (1955), quote results of mental tests, "intellectual levels" and "mental ages".…”

General causes of abnormal behavior.

“…Actually, most pubertas praecox patients are slightly retarded in intelligence. Their mean IQ, obtained by dividingmental age by true calendar age, is about 85 (13). An oversecretion of cortin in males during adulthood is chiefly marked by excessive growth of body hair.…”