Mental Changes after Removing Tonsils and Adenoids

This paper presents the results of an attempt to measure the change in general mental alertness which followed the operation for diseased tonsils and adenoids. The comparisons made in this study involve the use of a control group with adenoids which did not undergo the operation. Only one other investigator has taken advantage of the fact that the best control group would consist of those suffering from the same defects but not operated upon. Three methods were used to determine the changes in mental ability; tests of mental alertness, teachers' estimates of certain traits, and the actual scholarship records. Cornell estimates that about 8 per cent of school children suffer from diseased tonsils and adenoids. The prevalence and the easy correction of these defects make important the question of the mental changes after their removal. There have been few studies attacking the problem in a scientific way. The four chief investigations are those made by Rogers ('22), Terman ('19), McPhail ('20), and Cornell ('12). See the bibliography at the close. Doctor Rogers' study of 28 children operated upon for defective tonsils and adenoids reveals no difference in the average I. Q. six months after the operation when compared with 28 children, of practically the same life age, possessing these defects. She says: "We find that the test group shows an average gain in I. Q. of 25 points. The median gain is 2 points, the total range 18 points and P. E. of the average is ?0.99. The control group shows an average gain very slightly higher, 3.25 points, the median gain being 3. The range in this case is 32 points, but P. E. is only ?0.47. The average of the compared gains of separate pairs is ?1.035. . . . Actually, we may say that the operative group as a whole showed no gain over the control group." Retesting after one year 21 children available from each of the two groups, "the average gain of the test group was 3.09 points after twelve months, compared with 2.25 after six. The control group, however, made an average gain of 6.24 after twelve months, the gain after six months being 3.29. These numbers are insignificant as gains, but they at least show no improvement in the test group which the control group does not reveal as well." This