A longitudinal study of the psychological aspects of myelomeningocele

The psychological effects on child and family of myelomeningocele, a severe multihandicapping, congenital malformation of the spinal cord, is being followed in a longitudinal, interdisciplinary investigation. The first unselected sample of 30 children has been tested at regular intervals up till school age and their parents interviewed. Results indicate that the condition is often associated with psychomotor retardation in various degrees, depending on the seriousness of neurological complications. An unexpected finding was that performance level tended to improve with increasing age, mean IQ being lowest in the first couple of years approaching normal in the preschool years. After a crisis period from the last part of the child's first year till approximately 2 years, the strain on the family seems to lessen considerably and an improvement of psychological functioning and well-being can be observed. In the preschool years relatively few emotional and behavioral difficulties were registered.