The Use of the W.H.O. International Classification of Diseases (Mental Retardation) in a Hospital for Mentally Handicapped

¹ Physician Superintendent, Meanwood Park Hospital, Tongue Lane, Leeds, LS6 4QB

In 1969 consultants in hospitals for the mentally handicapped were asked to use the booklet A Glossary of Mental Disorders published by the General Register Office in the completion of Mental Health Inquiry Index Cards.

Six hundred long-stay mentally handicapped in-patients were classified according to the section on `Mental Retardation' in the Glossary. The numbers of patients in each of the intellectual and aetiological subdivisions of this classification were tabulated with respect to the wards in the hospital.

This Glossary is a useful instrument for the classification of the residents in a hospital for the mentally handicapped. Medical, nursing and other staff become accustomed to the meaning of the code numbers used. The classification provides a convenient means of presenting the intellectual levels and diagnostic categories of the patients in the hospital. Some of the difficulties encountered in the aetiological categorization of patients are described.