Biochemistry and schizophrenia III. A review of childhood psychosis

Abstract

There is currently no consistent evidence for a biochemical cause or correlation with the etiology of childhood psychoses. None of the biochemical parameters studied to date, including the biogenic amines, the pink spot, the mauve factor, bufotenine, histamine, serum factors, chromosomal abnormalities, endocrinological changes, or other metabolic factors, has been shown to be causally related to the etiology of one or more of the childhood psychoses. Many of the investigations suffer from inadequate experimental design, from lack of rigorous control of relevant variables such as diet, hospitalization, stress, and medications, or from the use of insensitive or nonspecific chemical techniques. In addition, the number of subjects frequently has been small. The search for a biochemical etiology of childhood psychoses requires a more rigorous, intensive approach, using available neurochemical techniques. Unlike research into the major psychosis of adult life, investigations of childhood psychosis lack sturdy theoretical underpinnings. Some studies are derived from theories first proposed for adult schizophrenia, but testable hypotheses specific to childhood psychosis are rarely proposed. The relatively low level of development in this respect may reflect the fact that there are few researchers committed to the study of biochemical factors and childhood psychosis. Our bibliography indicates that the greatest number of reports identifiable to any one author is six. There has been a failure to sustain a consistent interest in the area of childhood psychosis. Perhaps this failure is an advantage to any new researcher in the area because he does not have to sift through several thousand papers, as he might with the study of adult psychosis, to understand what is already known.