title: The biochemical approach to mental handicap: 30 years of achievements and disappointments.
abstract: In the past half century, biochemistry has emerged as an independent discipline that provides essential and fundamental information for medical science. It has an increasingly important role in various branches of medicine and the biochemist is frequently called upon to apply his expertise to the solution of clinical problems, amongst them the role of biochemical disturbances in the aetiology of disorders associated with mental handicap, and the investigation of factors affecting their severity and clinical course. The expectation has been that the understanding of biochemical defects will lead promptly to the suggestion of remedies.
mesh_terms: D001928:Brain Diseases, Metabolic / Q000235:genetics*; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008661:Metabolism, Inborn Errors / Q000235:genetics; D010661:Phenylketonurias / Q000235:genetics