No abstract

Ten children diagnosed as psychotic by the DeMyer-Churchill guidelines were matched for age and sex with ten non-psychotic but emotionally disturbed children. Six of the ten pairs were medication free. In four of the ten pairs, at least one member was medicated at the time of testing. The plasma of the children diagnosed as psychotic caused a significantly (p < 0.025) greater uptake of tryptophan by chicken red blood cells than did the serum of their control group. This is the same effect on tryptophan uptake as found when the plasma of adult patients with process schizophrenia is incubated with chicken erythrocytes and tryptophan. This finding lends support to the possibility that there is a subgroup of childhood psychotic patients who have a biological disturbance similar to that found in adult process schizophrenic patients.