Mental Retardation is a human problem which takes its toll in many ways. The statistics which indicate that there are 5 million mentally retarded persons in the United States, or that 126,000 babies born each year will be retarded, tell only a part of the story. The loss to the nation is evident in the lack of full social effectiveness of these people, the tragic problems of family adaptation to the crises associated with the rearing of retarded children, and the complexities of developing various medical, social, and educational agencies and programs to deal with these problems. That the problems of the mentally retarded have not received adequate attention has been apparent for years.
It is gratifying, therefore, to present in this issue (p 183) a report of a conference of 175 experts in the field of mental retardation, which was held under the auspices of the AMA through its