Twins in a Child Psychiatry Clinic
MARIA PALUSZNY M.D.1, and
A. GEOFFREY ABELSON M.ED.2
1 Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, and Program Director in Psychiatry, Institute for the Study of Mental Retardation and Related Disabilities, University of Michigan, 130 S. First St., Ann Arbor, Mich. 48108
2 Research Assistant of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, and Program Director in Psychiatry, Institute for the Study of Mental Retardation and Related Disabilities, University of Michigan, 130 S. First St., Ann Arbor, Mich. 48108
The authors found that 22 of the 2,015 referrals to a children's psychiatric clinic during a six-year period were twins-half the number that would be expected on the basis of the national incidence of twins. Evidence of minimal brain dysfunction was found in a higher percentage of the twins than in a matched nontwin group. The authors suggest that factors often inherent in twins (e.g., prematurity and birth difficulties) may be related to this finding.
