To elucidate the role of emotional factors in PKU, 4 subject groups comprised of PKU, retarded and/or brain damaged, psychotic, and normal children were compared on a measure of interaction behavior. On total interaction scores, the PKU group was found to perform significantly poorer than the normals, but significantly better than the psychotics. Differences between the PKU group and retarded and/or brain-damaged group tended toward significance, although on separate comparisons for the 3 social stimulus conditions the differences between these 2 groups were not significant. The PKU group was found to be the most heterogeneous, and the clustering of scores suggested that phenylketonuria is behaviorally not a unitary disorder. Correlations of intelligence criteria and interaction scores for the PKU group further indicated that the interaction measure may tap functions not assessed by standardized IQ tests.

Ilhenny for their contributions to the study.

No abstract

Children with phenylketonuria (PKU), previously reported to show behavioral abnormalities and communicational deficits and to be extreme in activity patterns, were evaluated by a structured interaction procedure. PKU children, judged to be emotionally disturbed and inadequate in communication from independent impressions during psychological testing, performed more poorly than those PKU children judged nondisturbed and more adequate in communication under two of the three social stimulus interaction conditions. Children with PKU who manifested extreme patterns of activity were not significantly different in their interactional behavior from children with PKU who demonstrated normal activity levels. Differences in interaction behavior were obtained between children with PKU and normal control children similar on socioeconomic variables.