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Joan Stephenson, PhD

JAMA. 2000;284:2445.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Patients with phenylketonuria (PKU) should continue to adhere to a special diet throughout life rather than abandon it after childhood, a consensus panel convened by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) concluded last month. The group's findings were intended to resolve a long-standing disagreement about the necessity of lifelong adherence to dietary restrictions that are troublesome for many patients.

The panel noted that while adults with PKU who are not on a phenylalanine-restricted diet have stable IQ scores, they perform more poorly on measures of attention and processing speed. "Metabolic control is necessary across the life span of individuals with PKU," the group concluded, although they conceded that "some relaxation may be tolerable, in some cases, as the individual ages."

Lifelong treatment also should include frequent blood tests to monitor phenylalanine levels, daily dietary logs, and regular visits to a PKU clinic, they said. The group also . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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