Biogenic Amines in Autistic and Atypical Children

Autism and Fragile X: Is There a Neurochemical Link?

“…Also low cerebrospinal fluid levels of 5-hydroxyindoleaceticacid [24] and low serotonin urinary excretion rate in autism [25] supports our findings.…”

Serum dopamine-beta-hydroxylase activity: Clinical applications in child psychiatry

“…This parallels the negative relation between thyroid hormone levels and plasma catecholamines (Christianson, 1973;Stoffer, Jiang, Gorman, & Pikler, 1973) and catecholamine metabolites in cerebrospinal fluid (Klawans & Shenker, 1972;Cohen, Shaywitz, Johnson, & Bowers, 1974). A pilot study of euthyroid control subjects and psychiatric patients suggested that serum DBH activity and thyroxine levels were negatively correlated within the normal range of thyroid function (r = -.44, N = 39, p< .01, unpublished results).…”

A psychopathogenesis of autism

“…They believe stereotypic behavior is a device to block the input of novel sensory stimulation and to lower the high level of cortical arousal, a finding from their earlier EEG studies. Cohen et al [34] support this hypothesis with a finding of high levels of homovanellic acid and 5-hydroxyindolacetic acid in the cerebro spinal fluid. These chemicals reflect high levels of dopamine and seratonin related to abnormal patterns of …”