medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

, Infantilism is an obsolete term for various, often unrelated

disorder Disorder may refer to randomness, non-order, or no intelligible pattern. Disorder may also refer to: Healthcare * Disorder (medicine), a functional abnormality or disturbance * Mental disorder or psychological disorder, a psychological pattern ...

s of

human development Human development may refer to: * Development of the human body * Developmental psychology * Human development (economics) * Human Development Index, an index used to rank countries by level of human development * Human evolution Human evoluti ...

, up to

developmental disability Developmental disability is a diverse group of chronic conditions, comprising mental or physical impairments that arise before adulthood. Developmental disabilities cause individuals living with them many difficulties in certain areas of life, espe ...

, which consist of retention of the physical and/or psychological characteristics of early developmental stages ( infant, child) into a relatively advanced age.Ronald Grey Gordon (a 1999 reprint) "Personality", Routledge,
p.77
/ref> Various types of infantilism were recognized, lumped together in the above superficial description. With better understanding of the

endocrine system The endocrine system is a messenger system comprising feedback loops of the hormones released by internal glands of an organism directly into the circulatory system, regulating distant target organs. In vertebrates, the hypothalamus is the neu ...

and

genetic disorder A genetic disorder is a health problem caused by one or more abnormalities in the genome. It can be caused by a mutation in a single gene (monogenic) or multiple genes (polygenic) or by a chromosomal abnormality. Although polygenic disorders ...

s, various disorders which included the word "infantilism" received other names. For example, Brissaud's infantilism, described by Édouard Brissaud in 1907 is now known as

myxedema Myxedema is a term used synonymously with severe hypothyroidism. However, the term is also used to describe a dermatological change that can occur in hyperthyroidism and (rare) paradoxical cases of hypothyroidism. In this latter sense, myxedema ...

(a form of hypothyroidism); "intestinal infantilism" of Christian Archibald Herter is called

coeliac disease Coeliac disease (British English) or celiac disease (American English) is a long-term autoimmune disorder, primarily affecting the small intestine, where individuals develop intolerance to gluten, present in foods such as wheat, rye and barle ...

. The

Turner syndrome Turner syndrome (TS), also known as 45,X, or 45,X0, is a genetic condition in which a female is partially or completely missing an X chromosome. Signs and symptoms vary among those affected. Often, a short and webbed neck, low-set ears, low hair ...

was described as "a syndrome of infantilism" by Henry Turner himself. Terms such as "genital infantilism" (infantilism in development of genitals, hypogenitalism), or "sexual infantilism" (lack of sexual development after expected

puberty Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a bo ...

delayed puberty Delayed puberty is when a person lacks or has incomplete development of specific sexual characteristics past the usual age of onset of puberty. The person may have no physical or hormonal signs that puberty has begun. In the United States, girls ...

) may still be seen, and are considered to be synonyms of

hypogonadism Hypogonadism means diminished functional activity of the gonads—the testes or the ovaries—that may result in diminished production of sex hormones. Low androgen (e.g., testosterone) levels are referred to as hypoandrogenism and low estroge ...

. "Somatic infantilism" refers to infantilism of overall bodily development. Speech infantilism is a speech disorder. Similarly to some other medical terms (

cretinism Congenital iodine deficiency syndrome is a medical condition present at birth marked by impaired physical and mental development, due to insufficient thyroid hormone (hypothyroidism) often caused by insufficient dietary iodine during pregnancy. It ...

idiot An idiot, in modern use, is a stupid or foolish person. 'Idiot' was formerly a technical term in legal and psychiatric contexts for some kinds of profound intellectual disability where the mental age is two years or less, and the person cannot ...

ism), "infantilism"/"infantile" may be used pejoratively (synonymous to "

immature Mature is the adjectival form of maturity, as immature is the adjectival form of immaturity, which have several meanings. Mature or immature may also refer to: * Mature, a character from ''The King of Fighters'' series *"Mature 17+", a rating in ...

")."Infantilism"
a dictionary entry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Infantilism (Disorder) Developmental disabilities