Dexamethasone suppression test in autistic children.

A dexamethasone suppression test (DST) was carried out on autistic and other handicapped children to investigate the function of the hypothalamo-pituitary adrenal axis (HPA-axis). The subjects were 19 autistic children consisting of 11 relatively well-developed and eight poorly-developed children. The control groups were 26 normal volunteers, 19 patients with schizophrenia and 15 children with mental retardation (MR) or minimal brain dysfunction (MBD). The DST procedures followed the Carroll method. As a result, all of the normal volunteers and 19 schizophrenic patients showed normal response (suppressor). Nine of the 11 well-developed autistic children exhibited suppressor, while all of the poorly-developed children showed an abnormal response (non-suppressor). Nine of the 10 children with MR and all of the five children with MBD were suppressor. These results suggest that there might be a dysfunction in the HPA-axis of the poorly-developed autistic children.