Prevalence of the Fragile X Syndrome in an Institution for the Mentally Handicapped

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

In an investigation to find the prevalence of the fragile X (Martin Bell) syndrome in a mental handicap hospital, chromosomal investigations were carried out in 196 males selected out of a total of 512, and also in 20 female patients who were related to some of the selected males. Fragile X cells were found in 41 of the males and two of the females; in 21 of the males it was associated with macro-orchidism. The overall prevalence in the hospital for males (8.0%) ranks this syndrome next in importance to Down's syndrome as a known cause for mental handicap.