Premium
METABOLIC TRAITS IN MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN AS COMPARED WITH NORMAL POPULATIONS: PHENYLALANINE AND TYROSINE IN SERUM AND URINE
Author(s) -
HIRSCH W.,
MEX ANNEMARIE,
VOGEL F.
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
journal of intellectual disability research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1365-2788
pISSN - 0964-2633
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2788.1967.tb00222.x
Subject(s) - phenylalanine , tyrosine , urine , mentally retarded , urinary system , medicine , intelligence quotient , endocrinology , chemistry , psychology , amino acid , psychiatry , biochemistry , developmental psychology , cognition
SUMMARY A large sample of mentally subnormal patients aged 2 to 14 years admitted to Wiesengrand Children's Psychiatric Hospital, Berlin were investigated and subjected to detailed physical and mental examination. Those children without definite evidence of organic disease and in the IQ range of 60 to 90 were selected for biochemical studies and comparison with controls and relatives, using paper and column chromatography. There was a distinct increase in the serum and urinary phenylalanine of the patient sample and a less pronounced decrease in urinary tyrosine level. Patients with a phenylalanine, tyrosine ratio greater than or equal to 1 demonstrated slight but definite evidence of neurological disturbance compared with those with a P/T ratio less than 1. A daily variation in the P/T quotient was found. Evidence is produced to suggest that these anomalies, which are not of the metabolic block type, are of genetical origin and not determined by environmental factors.