Cognitive functioning and psychiatric disorders in children with a metabolic disease

To report on the intelligence scores and the psychiatric pathology of distinct groups of children with metabolic diseases.

The study population consists of 53 children between 0 and 18 years of age. Diagnostic assessment included a semi-structured interview, self-report questionnaires and a standard intelligence test.

In 40% of the children older than 5 years, a child psychiatric diagnosis was made. While CBCL total and internalizing scores did not differ between metabolic disease groups, the CBCL externalizing scores for some groups did. Two fifths of the children showed a below normal intelligence, while a performal-verbal IQ discrepancy was found in half of the children. Of the school aged children almost one third attended a special needs school.

In spite of the small sample size, the results suggest substantial psychiatric problems in children with a metabolic disease. Further study on larger groups is warranted, which should enable further comparison of patients affected by specific metabolic diseases.