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To the Editor.
—I have just read the interesting case report which appeared in the Archives concerning two patients with chronic headbanging who had cataracts (Spalter HF, Bemporad JR, Sours JA Cataracts following chronic headbanging. 83: 182-186, 1970.)I am surprised to find that no metabolic screenings were reported on these children. It is very likely that these two patients developed their cataracts not because of the headbanging per se but because of an underlying metabolic defect (hypoparathyroidism, galactosemia, galactokinase enzyme defects, etc) which caused their neuropsychiatric manifestations such as headbanging and autism.