This book offers a wealth of invaluable information on epidemiology and individual characteristics of young Scottish people with mental retardation. It is a unique follow-up study from the city of Aberdeen based on a representative series of 221 cases born between 1951 and 1955. The original ideas for the study were first concretized by Herbert Birch, Stephen Richardson and collaborators, and first published in 1970 in their well-known volume: Mental Subnormality in the Community: A Clinical and Epidemiological Study. [Richardson and Koller] now present the thoroughly collected and analysed follow-up data up to adult age… The volume undoubtedly is indispensable for all categories of researchers within the broad field of mental retardation projects. Above all, it is a brilliant reference book with advanced updated information, more so than a handbook, readily accessible for basic information. The authors’ knowledge and long professional experience, as well as their massive wealth of data presented and analysed, are all unique… The authors should be given special praise for the prevalence section, where the handling of controversial opinions between different schools is presented in a balanced way… This volume is highly recommended.

This longitudinal study of mentally retarded persons up to age 22 should appeal to a wide range of research workers, clinicians, and students concerned with the retarded, the biosocial problems associated with them, and the services they may require at different ages.

This extensive report will become a yardstick against which to judge some of the problems of less fortunate mentally retarded youth in harsher societies riven by discrimination, and in which employment opportunities and the benefits afforded by stable family settings are lacking.