[The incidence of the child psychic handicap in the department of Var in 2001 from CDES files].

BACKGROUND: Thanks to an automated treatment of the medical information of the Departmental Commission of the Special Education in the Var, set up since 1999, under the responsibility of an epidemiologist doctor, it is possible to measure the incidence rates of the children recognized as been handicapped.

METHODS: This study is the first one performed on the basis of good-quality and reliable medical and administrative informations. Moreover, this study has yielded thinking on the criteria of handicap definition and nomenclature to be used to define psychic deficiency.

RESULTS: The occurrence rate of children recognized as handicapped by the Departmental Commission of the Var is 2.04%. The rate of children with a psychic deficiency recognized by the Commission is 1.25%. These rates are 2.5 times higher among boys than girls. Psychic deficiencies occurs mainly between five and nine years of age, at the entry to the primary school. The western part of the department displays rates of nevrotic, reactional, instrumental functions, and training disorders that are higher than those of the other geographical areas. For the eastern part of the department, the rates of psychoses, pathologies of the personality and evolutionary disorders are the highest. The distribution of declared pathologies probably reflects equipment of the medical sector of childpsychiatry and distribution of the liberal assumptions of responsibility. The geographical area of Draguignan is significantly under-equipped with medico-social structures but is characterized by a high rate of children with a psychic handicap.

CONCLUSION: The Law of February 11 2005 for chance and equal right, stipulates a counting of the people affected by handicap and the underlying pathologies, to define the ethiology of the handicap, to improve the accompaniment of those people and to develop actions aimed at reducing the incapacities and at the prevention of risks. It is within the Departmental houses of the handicapped person that the information systems will have to collect a minimum common set of standardized data to meet requirements of the Law of February 2005 and to take part in the planification of the means of medico-social establishment.