INFANTILISM. - A particular condition of the individual characterized by the persistence of an infantile development and infantile traits at an age already past puberty; this with regard to stature and weight; particularly, by the deficient development of the primary sexual characteristics and the more or less complete absence of the secondary ones. With the picture of bodily and sexual infantilism there may be associated a psychic one, an intelligence appearing notably lower than would be proper to the age of the subject.
There exist different forms of infantilism in relation to the producing cause; quite often this is linked to a functional defect of a single gland or of a group of glands of internal secretion (hypophysis, thyroid, adrenals, pancreas) or to a congenital or early-acquired heart defect. A particular form is mongoloid infantilism, probably linked to defects of cerebral development (v. FRENASTENIA) combined with pluriglandular endocrine dysfunctions.
Infantilism must not be confused with dwarfism, in which the individual, although presenting infantile physical proportions in adult age, possesses a normal development, at times even exaggerated, on the sexual and intellectual side, appearing thus not as a baby, or child, but as a man in miniature.
The degrees of infantilism differ according to the level at which the evolution of the individual has been arrested; one speaks thus of infantilism in the strict sense, or of puerilism, or of persistent prepuberism.
Some forms of infantilism can respond to treatment, this according to the cause to which they are linked and the true age reached by the subject at the moment of observation; particularly susceptible to treatment and improvement are the forms linked to thyroid deficiency.
Psychic infantilism, from the educational side, must be treated and can benefit from the particular methods used for the mentally deficient (v.); from the moral side, they must be considered capable of a responsibility corresponding to their capacity to understand and to will, calculated on the level of their apparent age.
Bibliography5 works
Giuseppe de Nismo