Deprivation as a cause of impaired mental development in children

An extensive literature mainly in connection with the age peculiarities of clinical aspects and the related diagnostic challenges is dedicated to psychogenic disorders in children. According to it the assessment of the social context impact on child development is very challenging. In unfavorable family conditions a refusal to satisfy child's basic psychological needs easily appears. These are the situations when we speak about the phenomenon of deprivation in the family system. Mental deprivation of children rigidly depends on indicators of psychological health of the family. In our study the deprivation conditions in the overall context of family's psychological health played a specific and important role in the development of mental dysontogenesis in children and determined the nature of their social and psychological adaptation. Multi-professional analysis of the results allowed us identifying three of the most common options of school disadaptation in children with dysontogenesis of psychogenic origin. The first option was distinguished by the dominance of behavioral disorders, in the second option emotional disorders prevailed; and the third meets the definition of a mosaic option, including the decrease in cognitive efficiency, and emotional and behavioural disorders. Although the diversity of psychopathological manifestations was sufficiently obvious, in all cases we observed the total, axial syndrome. It was psychogenic asthenia, which pathoge-netic mechanisms were associated with the weakening of protective and adaptive functions. The discrepancy between a normal level of intellectual potential and reduced productivity was especially noticeable. In the complex combination of mental processes the asthenic syndrome manifested in some cases as an independent, leading type of dysontogenesis. In others, it evolved in the context of independent, but secondary psychopathological disorders. This combination of dysontogenesis deprivation registers resulted in a different allocation types: asthenic hyperdynamic, asthenic hypodynamic and mixed. Motor and emotional conative disorders with the leading excitable radical determined the psychogenic dysontogenesis structure of asthenic hyperdynamic children. In cases of asthenic hypodynamic type of dysontogenesis the dominating factors were signs of low activity, increased mental and physical exhaustion, affective lability with a tendency to a low mood. The third, mixed type was the most anomalous. Disontogenetic symptoms were noted in early childhood. Moreover, prominent features of residual organic pathology were diagnosed. The stages of deprivation syndrome development can be represented as follows. First, the initial symptoms of mental dysontogenesis coincide with somatic vegetative level of neuropsychic response. Psychogenic influences of the environment structure first symptoms of dysontogenesis in the form of neuropathy. The critical period of 3-4 years plays an important role in the early period. Second, there are latent physiological changes. They are caused by physiological stress that accompanies the process of adaptation. Signs of psychogenic asthenia appear. In the same period a gradual structuring of the three deprivation types begins. During the third phase the dysontogenetic imbalance increases and a complex of non-adaptive problems appears. At this stage, mental problems and psychological maladjustment aggravated.

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