Magnetic resonance brain images in schizophrenic and normal subjects: influence of diagnosis and education.

Evidence from computerized tomography (CT) suggests that schizophrenic patients may have smaller brains than normal subjects. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which produces more clearly defined images than CT, was used to measure T1 and brain size of 24 schizophrenic and 24 normal subjects matched for age and sex but not for education. Two transverse images were obtained: slice 1 at the foramina of Monro and slice 2 at the widest part of the lateral ventricles.

Infantile autism.

The authors define infantile autism, giving its time of manifestation, clinical development, differential diagnosis, management, and treatment. They hypothesize that the cause of autism probably will not be found in some consistent gross alteration in brain size or gross structure but that autistic children have some generalized deficit of neurologic function that is common to most or all cerebral neurons.

Plasma tryptophan and five other amino acids in depressed and normal subjects.

Decreases in brain serotonin levels have been implicated in the pathogenesis of human depression. While circulating levels of tryptophan (TRP) might possibly reflect concentration of brain serotonin, a more relevant peripheral measure may be the ratio of plasma TRP to five other neutral amino acids (TRP/5aa ratio). In depressed subjects and normal controls, plasma TRP (free and total), phenylalanine (PHE), tyrosine (TYR), leucine, isoleucine, and valine were measured on three days.