Psychometric analysis in children with mental retardation due to perinatal hypoxia treated with fibroblast growth factor (FGF) and showing improvement in mental development.

Doctors gave kids with mental retardation from birth oxygen loss a shot in the muscle every month. The shot held fibroblast growth factor, a protein that may help brain cells grow.

They tracked the kids’ IQ and development for several months. The design was quasi-experimental: kids got the drug, but there was no random control group.

IQ scores rose by more than ten points after the shots. Developmental tests also showed clear gains.

All three small groups of children improved, so the effect was labeled statistically significant.

Feyzi Dehkharghani et al. (2024) now supersedes this 1993 work. Their 2024 RCT used random assignment and gave kids with ID ten sessions of tDCS brain stimulation instead of a drug shot. The newer study found faster thinking with tighter controls, showing how far ID research has moved.

Giagazoglou et al. (2013) is methodologically similar. Both studies used quasi designs and saw gains in kids with ID, but trampoline exercise improved motor skills while FGF targeted IQ.

Fox et al. (2001) tested another novel drug, clozapine, in severe ID. Both papers show large drug effects, yet R’s case series focused on cutting self-injury, not boosting development.

You will not use FGF today; it never became standard care. Still, the study reminds you that large developmental jumps are possible and measurable. When you see claims about new brain-boost pills or stim devices, ask for RCT data like Sadra et al. provide, not just open trials like this one.