1. The Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome
- Author
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Claudia F. Cheatham and Larry H. Dizmang
- Subjects
Male ,Blood Specimen Collection ,Adolescent ,Aggression ,Mechanism (biology) ,medicine.disease ,Uric Acid ,Developmental psychology ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Child Development ,Chorea ,Purines ,Intellectual Disability ,Compulsive Behavior ,Self Mutilation ,medicine ,Humans ,Female ,medicine.symptom ,Child ,Psychology ,Lesch–Nyhan syndrome ,Athetosis - Abstract
The authors report their observations of five children with the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome and review the literature to describe the general characteristics of the disorder, the development and types of self-mutilative behavior, and the types of outward-directed aggression. The authors suggest that these children may have a very low threshold for the activation of a mechanism that controls repetitive, compulsive, pain-causing behavior. This factor may also explain other forms of self-destructive behavior in children and may represent the psychobiological basis for the development of masochistic behavior.
- Published
- 1970
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