[Oligophrenia as a disability diagnosis. Disability pensions in the period 1967-1992 in a group from Bergen born in 1940].

The authors discuss the use of unspecified oligophrenia as a diagnosis for disability pension, and draw attention to unrecognized oligophrenia. The study is based on a cohort of 1,570 persons, comprising all live births from 1940 of the mothers then residing in Bergen. The cohort was followed up in the school system in Bergen at age 14 years, again at age 30 years (1971) and up to the end of 1992. Relevant information on disability pensions was extracted from the files of the National Insurance Administration. The results of medical and psychological examinations in 1971 of a random sample of the cohort are also included. In the cohort 180 persons became new pensioners during the years 1967-92. Of these 10.6% were diagnosed as disable due to oligophrenia. In the sample 69.6% of the IQ-group 55-69 were receiving a disability pension, two thirds with a diagnosis of oligophrenia. In the IQ-group 70-84, 46.4% had a disability pension, one third with the diagnosis oligophrenia. These findings suggest that the use of oligophrenia as a disability diagnosis is less frequent than the prevalence of oligophrenia would in fact seem to justify.