The vocabulary of modern youth includes many terms, including offensive ones. Such designations of a person as “moron”, “idiot” and others indicate that he does not think well or does not understand something. In fact, all these words are medical terms, and characterize severe deviations of the patient’s nervous system. Most people realize that “imbeciles” is a designation of one of the pathological conditions characterized by a lag in mental development. In the circle of doctors who specialize in these complex diseases, this concept is used as a form of oligophrenia.
Imbeciles - who is this?
This pathology refers to dementia, whose competent name is oligophrenia. Imbeciles are people with an average degree of this disease. This term is translated from Latin as “weak” or “weak”. The patient's condition is characterized by the fact that he lags behind not only in mental, but also in physical development. Their dementia consists in primitive thinking, a small vocabulary limited to a few phrases or words. Nevertheless, imbeciles understand the meaning of the words addressed to them and are amenable to learning. The memory and attention of such patients is low, so it makes no sense to overload them. Patients recognize their loved ones and understand whether they praise them or, conversely, scold them. If you provide imbecile with good care and constantly deal with it, you can accustom it to some simple physical work and instill self-care skills. It is necessary to have a lot of patience and diligence, since the patient needs constant monitoring and care.
Oligophrenia: causes of the disease
Dementia can be congenital and acquired throughout life. Most often, oligophrenia appears in the womb or in early childhood. There are a number of factors affecting the development of this pathology. Common causes of dementia are genetic and chromosomal defects, which arise even in the early stages of pregnancy of the mother
(Down syndrome, Edwards). In addition, factors affecting the embryogenesis of a child are
hemolytic disease of the fetus, viral and bacterial infections of women. An important reason for the development of disorders can be bad habits that the mother did not give up during pregnancy. Another group of factors is the birth trauma of the baby, a long stay without oxygen. In childhood, the causes of dementia can be brain diseases, severe bacterial and viral meningitis, encephalitis, etc.
Degrees of Oligophrenia
Delayed brain development can be expressed in different ways. With a mild degree, patients not only serve themselves, but also freely perform household tasks, for example, go to the store, talk with people around on ordinary topics. In addition, they can work. A severe degree is characterized by a complete lack of thinking. Oligophrenes are divided into 3 types:
- Morons.
- Imbeciles.
- Idiots.
Debility is a mild degree of oligophrenia, in which patients are quite independent, understand the speech addressed to them, and are able to answer simple questions. The intellectual development coefficient of such patients is 50-70%.
Oligophrenia in the degree of imbecility is regarded as an average condition. The intellectual coefficient of patients is 20-50%. Imbeciles are people who are able to understand the simplest appeal to them, serve themselves, and also show their emotions.
A severe degree of oligophrenia is idiocy (intelligence coefficient less than 20%). These patients require constant care, as they are unable to exist independently. Idiots have almost no thinking, they do not understand the meaning of the words addressed to them, they should be served by loved ones.
Diagnosis of Dementia
Oligophrenia associated with genetic or embryonic causes can be noticed even during pregnancy. To do this, women undergo a special screening to detect changes in the level of hormones responsible for the mental state of the fetus. Deviations such as macro- and microcephaly are already visible on ultrasound. If during pregnancy it was not possible to establish the presence of a pathology, then it will be diagnosed in the first years of the child's life. Such children are characterized by a significant lag in physical and mental development, inability to independently hold their heads for several months. They do not concentrate on close people, for a long time they don’t start walking and talking, they have a bad memory.
Is treatment for oligophrenia possible?
Currently, dementia is not treated. Children who have been diagnosed with this have a disability group. In order to make their life easier, they are trained in specialized institutions where they receive primary education and master the skills that allow them to work in the future. This ability has both a moron and imbecile. Photos of such patients can be seen in our article or medical literature.