Cerebrospinal Fluid Monoamine Metabolites in Neuropsychiatric Disorders of Childhood

The severe neuropsychiatric disorders of childhood, phenotypically and genotypically diverse behavioral syndromes apparent during the first years of life, affect up to 3% of all children.

Abstract

The severe neuropsychiatric disorders of childhood, phenotypically and genotypically diverse behavioral syndromes apparent during the first years of life, affect up to 3% of all children. Organically definable causes include structural malformations of the brain, chromosomal abnormalities, inborn errors of metabolism, anoxia, infection, head trauma, and numerous other types of inborn and acquired pathological influences on central nervous system (CNS) maturation. When such medically explicable disorders are excluded, the neuropsychiatric disorders consist of a broad range of syndromes of unknown etiology involving the normal unfolding of linguistic, cognitive, and social competence. In their most severe forms, such as primary childhood autism, all spheres of development may be disturbed pervasively; in less severe syndromes, one or another facet of development is more prominently involved (such as expressive and receptive language in the developmental aphasias or the regulation of attention and motor activity in attention-deficit syndromes).13,15,18,58,59