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>MELANIN IN THE ASCENDING RETICULAR ACTIVATING SYSTEM AND ITS POSSIBLE RELATIONSHIP TO AUTISM
Author(s) -
Happy Rob,
Collins John K.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1972.tb92995.x
Subject(s) - autism , melanin , psychology , developmental psychology , medicine , clinical psychology , biology , genetics
In an investigation of 25 autistic and 69 normal children in New South Wales, there was an overrepresentation of relatively hypopigmented autistic children and an underrepresentation of relatively hyperpigmented autistic children. The difference was significant at better than the 0·25 level of confidence. This indicates the possibility of an undetected or unknown metabolic disturbance in autistic children in N.S.W. A rationale is given for the suggested levodopa therapy with a concurrent decarboxylase inhibitor.