Abstract

Twenty-four patients, all of them over 15 years, with the Prader-Willi syndrome are described. Obesity, often extreme, associated with an insatiable appetite, was their principal handicap and this was made worse by educational subnormality and hypogonadism. Three of the them developed diabetes. Each attended a special school or an adult training centre. Although most of them were of short stature and had scoliosis, 2 were tall but they even more severely mentally retarded than is usually the case. Nine other patients died aged between 3 and 23 years. The most common cause of death was cor pulmonale.