Biochemical studies in early infantile autism

In four series of studies on schizophrenic patients and normals we found that all the schizophrenics eliminated N, N-dimethyltryptamines in their urine while none of the normals did so. Similarly, with early infantile autism (Studies I and II) and normal controls, this separation between patiens and normals still held. But ten parents of the five autistic children positive for bufotenin revealed that one or both parents, i.e., seven of ten were positive. The Psychiatric Assessment Interview, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Index, and the Rorschach indicated no significant evidence of psychopathology. Thus, individuals who revealed no psychopathology could still be positive for bufotenin. In studies III and V, 1 of 13 normals and 13 of 27 normals were positive, respectively. Study IV showed that 6 of 18 autistic children were positive for bufotenin.