Spinal Cord Compromise: An Important but Underdiagnosed Condition in People with Mental Retardation

The Surgeon General’s 2002 report emphasized the need for better healthcare for people with neurodevelopmental disabilities, including improved education, research, and direct care. People with neurodevelopmental disabilities often experience poorer health compared to the general population due to various factors like psychiatric conditions, seizure disorders, and injuries. A group of clinicians explored conditions leading to complications and death in the developmentally disabled, developing systems for early identification and medical protocols for prompt diagnosis and treatment.

• 1
  Spinal cord compromise is a serious and underdiagnosed condition in individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities and may be an important contributor to functional decline and early death.
• 2
  The evaluation of 48 intellectually disabled adults suggests a correlation between functional decline and positive findings on imaging studies of the spine.
• 3
  A statistically significant relationship was found between anticonvulsant medication and spinal stenosis/degenerative disease, prolapsed disc, and spinal cord compression.