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Clinical neurochemistry of autism and associated disorders

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Abstract

Advances in information concerning brain function in animals and advances in analytical neurochemical methods for determining extremely low levels of compounds in physiological fluids have opened great opportunities for clinical neurochemical studies of autism. Nevertheless, the behavioral deficits in autistic individuals are major obstacles to clarification of the relations between symptoms and biochemical dysfunction in the brain. The fundamental preclinical and clinical studies of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine metabolism related to infantile autism are reviewed, and new studies are suggested, as examples of the productive strategies that will illuminate features of the autistic syndrome in the next decade.

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Reference notes

  1. Young, J. G. Belendiuk, K., Freedman, D. X., Sternstein, G., & Cohen, D.J. Hyperserotonemia in infantile autism. I. Clinical studies. Submitted for publication, 1982.

  2. Young, J. G., Belendiuk, K., Freedman, D. X., Sternstein, G., & Cohen, D.J. Hyperserotonemia in infantile autism. III. Biochemical correlates of platelet concentrations of serotonin. Submitted for publication, 1982.

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The research was supported in part by MHCRC grant MH30929, CCRC grant RR00125, NICHD grant HD03008, the William T. Grant Foundation, Mr. Leonard Berger, The Solomon R. & Rebecca D. Baker Foundation, Inc., and the MacArthur Foundation. We are grateful to the children and families who have collaborated with us in this research, and to Dr. Amy Lettick, Mr. Daniel Davis, and the staff of Benhaven in New Haven, Connecticut, for their guidance and help in these investigations. We appreciate the excellent research assistance of Ms. Barbara Caparulo, Ms. Ellen Waldron, and Ms. Diane Harcherik, and the careful preparation of the manuscript by Ms. Margrethe Cone. The children were evaluated in the Children's Research Center, under the direction of Myron Genel, M.D., and Mary Carey, R.N.

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Young, J.G., Kavanagh, M.E., Anderson, G.M. et al. Clinical neurochemistry of autism and associated disorders. J Autism Dev Disord 12, 147–165 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01531305

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