Chronic Neurological Sequelae of Acute Organophosphate Pesticide Poisoning: An Epidemiologic Study

摘要

One hundred individuals who had experienced organophosphate pesticide poisonings were matched with 100 individuals who had never been poisoned but were similar in age, sex, race, ethnic background, education and occupational class but not occupation. None of the control subjects had any occupational exposure to pesticides while 96% of the poisoned individuals worked with pesticides professionally. Both groups underwent extensive testing for neurological and psychological function. No statistically significant differences in neurological function were detected between the poisoned group and controls. Statistically significant differences were found in certain psychological tests. Both groups tested above average in intelligence, but the control group scored 5 points higher on the average on adult IQ tests. For the most part, the control group scored higher in areas related to academic skills. In self-assessments of psychological function, the control group scored higher in the same areas.