Effect of iodine correction early in fetal life on intelligence quotient. A preliminary report.

In-some areas in which goiter is endemic there is a high prevalence of mental deficiency without any other stigma of cretinism (1-6). When surveying the populations of Tocachi and La Esperanza in highland Ecuador in which goiter is endemic we were impressed by the high prevalence of mental deficiency in the general population; This generalized mental deficiency was in­ dependent of the typical cases of cretinism. We believe that several factors such as protein-caloric malnutrition and chronic iodine deficiency may contribute toward producing this mental deficit. All of these factors exist in the populations studied.