Systematic Review to Determine the Incidence of Psychiatric Co-morbidities in Learning Disabled Children

Abstract

Learning disability is one of the most significant disorders facing school-age children. It refers to a heterogenous group of disorders manifested by significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of reading (dyslexia), writing (dysgraphia), or mathematical (dyscalculia) abilities despite intact senses, normal intelligence, proper motivation, and adequate sociocultural opportunity. Co-morbidity could be defined as a common underlying etiology which leads to two or more different disorders, or that one disorder leads to another, or even that two unrelated disorders co-occur. The term co-morbid also implies that their entities are morbid conditions, i.e. diseases. Understanding co-morbidity is important because the presence of anadditional disorder may affect the expression and severity of the clinical picture, requiring specific treatments and interventions.