Strabismus connected to mental illness

Children with exotropia type strabismus appear to be at a greater risk of developing mental illness by young adulthood, according to a report in the November edition of Paediatrics.

A study by Dr Brian G Mohney and colleagues from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota investigated the prevalence and types of psychiatric disorders diagnosed by early adulthood among patients who had common forms of strabismus as children.

They examined the medical records of 407 children under 19 years of age who were diagnosed as having esotropia or exotropia between January 1985 and December 1994 who were reviewed retrospectively for psychiatric disease. Each subject was compared with a randomly selected control from the same population.