Childhood psychosis and urinary excretion of peptides and protein-associated peptide complexes.

Twenty-four infantile autistic children were compared with 12 children with other kinds of childhood psychoses, 5 children with so-called minimal brain dysfunction syndrome, 5 children with attention deficit disorder, 14 children with mental retardation, and 19 normal children with regard to chromatographic profiles of urinary products that give ultraviolet absorbency at 280 nm. Six main types of chromatographic patterns emerged. Fifty-four percent of the autistic children and 17% of the children with other psychoses showed a distinct pattern that was not seen in any other cases. Only 8% of the autistic children showed the "normal" pattern seen in 95% of the normal and 93% of the mentally retarded children without psychosis. The ultraviolet absorbency peaks of the chromatograms possibly correspond to peptides and protein-associated peptide complexes. It is argued that these products are probably at least partly of CNS origin.