Platelet uptake and efflux of serotonin in subtypes of psychotic children.

The only finding of a metabolic defect in psychotic children which has been replicated in a blind study is the discovery of an elevated efflux of serotonin from the platelets of children with early infantile autism (Boullin, Coleman, & O'Brien, 1970; Boullin, Coleman, O'Brien, & Rimland, 1971). The reported failure of Yuwiler, Ritvo, Geller, Glousman, Schneiderman, and Matsuno (1975) to replicate the Boullin et al. findings is attributable to differences in the method of selecting subjects. The Boullin et al. studies found that only children with classical infantile autism, as diagnosed by the Rimland E-2 check list, manifested the metabolic error. Since only 10% of psychotic children score in the autistic range on the check list, and since all children in the Yuwiler et al. study displayed the syndrome of "perceptual inconstancy," a syndrome inconsistent with "insistence on the preservation of sameness," an integral part of the syndrome of early infantile autism as scored on the E-2 check list, the failure of Yuwiler et al. to find elevated efflux in their sample was to be expected.