Abstract
The medical and social service charts of siblings and half siblings of 17 children with minimal brain dysfunction, (MBD)-all of whom began foster care at a young age — were reviewed for signs and findings of MBD. Compared to the half siblings, the full siblings of index MBD children had a significantly greater occurrence of short attention span, repeated childhood antisocial behavior, and diagnostic evidence for MBD. Appraised also for the sib and half sib groups were the following factors reportedly associated with MBD: presence of a seizure or a congenital disorder, low IQ, low birth weight, being male, and being first in the birth order. From these data, the most impressive findings were the high rate (30%) of seizure histories in designated MBD children and the evidence that there was a far greater occurrence of possible and likely MBD when both genetic and high rate factors coexisted.
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Safer, D.J. A familial factor in minimal brain dysfunction. Behav Genet 3, 175–186 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067657
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067657