The eye in idiopathic mental retardation.

An ophthalmic evaluation was undertaken in 250 consecutive cases of mental retardation where no specific etiological diagnosis could be established, ie, "idiopathic" mental retardation. Visual impairment was noted in 59 of these patients, and was mainly due to primary optic atrophy, besides cortical blindness, strabismus, nystagmoid eye movements, refractive errors and various associated congenital ocular anomalies. It was encouraging to find that 191 children had active vision, including 10 patients with definite disc pallor. The importance of useful vision in these retarded children cannot be overemphasized. This is probably the first report in the literature analyzing the ocular changes and their significance in a fairly large series of idiopathic mental retardation.