Intelligence (IQ) Lost and Regained: The Psychoneuroendocrinology of Failure to Thrive, Catch-up Growth, the Syndrome of Abuse Dwarfism, and Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy

Abstract

Reversible failure of mental growth together with reversible failure of statural growth, both associated with child abuse, was first ascertained through the study of longitudinal follow-up case records in the Johns Hopkins Psychohormonal Research Unit (Money, 1977; see also Williams & Money, 1980). The purpose of this chapter is to review the history of research on the developmental constancy of IQ, preliminary to the presentation of data on the reversibility of IQ impairment in the failure-to-thrive syndrome known variously as reversible hyposomatotropinism, psychosocial dwarfism, and abuse dwarfism. This syndrome is characterized by impairment of statural, intellectual, and social growth and maturation before rescue from abuse, and catch-up growth following rescue. The parents or guardians of the child with abuse dwarfism are themselves nosologically classified under Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy.