Amniocentesis: a Means of Pre-Natal Diagnosis of Conditions Associated with Severe Mental Subnormality

¹ Consultant Psychiatrist, Queen Mary's Hospital for Children, Carshalton, Surrey

Amniocentesis adds a new dimension to genetical counselling. As Nadler (1969) points out, it may enable the physician to inform the parents that they will have an affected or most probably a normal child; with results from these investigations, risks that may be quoted for Mendelian recessive defects are no longer one in four, but are one hundred per cent or zero. The results from amniocentesis are likely to have a positive effect in numerous cases, in that they will bring reassurance to a number of mothers that the baby they are carrying may be expected to be normal. This may bring relief from months of anxiety, and it is significant that already mothers who have borne mongols and children with other abnormal conditions are beginning to ask for amniocentesis when they become pregnant again. The demand will grow, and the time has come to consider development of this service on a nation-wide basis.