Amino acids tested in children at risk for behavioral disorders.

LA JOLLA, CALIF. -- Targeted amino acid therapy shows promise as an intervention for children with behavioral disorders, a group of researchers led by Karyn Purvis, Ph.D., reported in a poster session at a meeting on natural supplements in evidence-based practice sponsored by the Scripps Clinic.

"Based upon an evaluation of the child's current neurotransmitter levels, targeted amino acid therapy (TAAT) can be used to provide nutritional support for the production of neurotransmitters that are deficient in the child's central nervous system," the researchers wrote in their poster. "We hypothesized that by enhancing the production of deficient neurotransmitters, TAAT can lead to changes both in children's neurotransmitter levels and their behavior."

Dr. Purvis of Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, and her associates studied 78 children with an average age of 10 years. The children were recruited through local support groups for adoptive parents and were considered at risk for serious behavior disorders.

Forty-four children were randomly assigned to the treatment group, and 34 served as controls. Treatment consisted of amino acid supplements (made and provided by NeuroScience Inc.) that are designed to provide nutritional support for serotonin and [gamma]-aminobutyric acid (GABA) production. At baseline and 2 months, parents completed Achenbach's Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and urine samples from the children were assayed for epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, GABA, glutamate, pulseless electrical activity (PEA), and histamine.

At the 2-month assessment, children in the treatment group showed significant improvement, compared with controls, in half the assays studied (epinephrine, serotonin, GABA, and PEA) and on 6 of 11 CBCL subscales: anxiety/depression, thought problems, attention problems, aggressive behavior, other problems, and externalizing behaviors.

More research is needed, but this initial study suggests that TAAT is a promising avenue, the researchers concluded at the meeting, cosponsored by the University of California, San Diego.