Congenital Hypothyroidism: Intellectual and Neuropsychological Functioning

Screening newborns for congenital hypothyroidism (CH) has been effective in preventing the mental retardation that typically occurred when diagnosis was based on clinical symptomatology. This chapter provides an overview of the disease and its manifestations as well as a comparison of outcome in children with CH diagnosed clinically with those now being found via newborn screening. A detailed description of the author’s own longitudinal study of screened CH children is also presented with special emphasis on the factors predicting better outcome.