Juvenile Adiposogenital Dystrophy. Neurologic and Psychopathologic Aspects. Results of Organotherapy and Psychotherapy1

The syndrome of adiposogenital dystrophy was established first by Babinski (2), then by Fröhlich (3). Their respective cases presented obesity and genital atrophy, together with signs of an expanding lesion in the region of the pituitary fossa. Later the term came to be applied to the syndrome in general, regardless of etiology. This paper is based on the study of 16 boys, varying in ages from 4 to 14 years. None of the patients showed signs of intracranial expanding lesion, such as tumor or hydrocephalus; none was of moronic or of lower intelligence; none gave a history of encephalitis. The neurologic and psychologic problems studied would be completely altered by the presence of such grave lesions. The patients presented most of the following endocrine symptoms: adiposity, consisting of generalized fat deposits, accentuated about the lower and upper girdle, or of fat deposits only about the upper and lower girdle; genital anomalies; small penis with redundancy of the skin; undersized, often