[Cognitive and psychological profiles in dysmorphic syndromes].

The recognizable patterns of human malformations have recently received much attention, particularly because of the decline of other diseases. Patients with a congenital malformation syndrome come to the Child Neuropsychiatrist for various reasons, such as: mental retardation of variable degree, learning disabilities, speech delay or absence of speech, behaviour disorders, various neurological impairment. Parents, however, seem to be mainly concerned about the prognosis of cognitive and psychological aspects. We have studied 83 patients with a specific pattern of malformations (35 affected by the Sotos syndrome; 25 by the Williams syndrome; 9 by the Cohen syndrome; 8 by the Cornelia De Lange syndrome; 6 by the Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome) and have particularly investigated their cognitive and psychological profiles. 13/83 showed a normal cognitive level (9 Sotos syndrome; 4 Williams syndrome), while 70/83 showed a cognitive deficit ranging from mild-moderate (56 cases) to moderate-severe (14 cases). Linguistic deficits are prominent in the Sotos, Cornelia De Lange, and Rubinstein-Taybi patients, while practo-gnosic deficits are frequent in the Williams and particularly in the Cohen syndrome patients. The personality structure is characterized by immaturity and anxiety in all but the Williams syndrome patients, where some peculiar neurotic traits may be observed. All patients showed good communicative abilities.