Disability Scoop: GI Troubles May Be Early Sign Of Autism

[proverbialwisdom]

http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2015/03/27/gi-troubles-early-autism/20167/



GI Troubles May Be Early Sign Of Autism

By MICHELLE DIAMENT
March 27, 2015

Gastrointestinal issues common among many on the spectrum are often apparent in infancy — well before individuals are diagnosed with the developmental disorder, researchers say.

Children with autism are more than twice as likely as typically-developing kids to have regular gastrointestinal symptoms as infants and toddlers, according to findings published this week in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

For the study, researchers used information collected on over 45,000 children in Norway. The data included responses to questionnaires mothers completed about their children at ages 18 and 36 months.

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What’s more, children later diagnosed with autism were more likely than those with other developmental delays to have experienced gastrointestinal issues when they were little, the study found.

“We not only learned that these symptoms appeared early in infancy; we also found that children with ASD were at significantly increased risk for these symptoms to persist compared with typically-developing children,” said Michaeline Bresnahan of Columbia University who led the study

Though stomach issues often resolved themselves in typically-developing children by age 3, the problems more frequently remained in kids with autism, researchers said.

Nonetheless, they caution that despite the association between autism and gut troubles, most children with gastrointestinal problems do not develop autism nor does everyone on the spectrum experience such symptoms.

“GI symptoms alone need not be cause for alarm,” Bresnahan said.

http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2205833

Original Investigation | March 25, 2015

Association of Maternal Report of Infant and Toddler Gastrointestinal Symptoms With Autism
Evidence From a Prospective Birth Cohort

Michaeline Bresnahan, PhD, MPH1,2; Mady Hornig, MD1,3; Andrew F. Schultz, MS3; Nina Gunnes, PhD4; Deborah Hirtz, MD5; Kari Kveim Lie, MD4; Per Magnus, MD, PhD4; Ted Reichborn-Kjennerud, MD, PhD4,6; Christine Roth, PhD1,4; Synnve Schjølberg, LPsy4; Camilla Stoltenberg, MD, PhD4; Pål Surén, MD, MPH4; Ezra Susser, MD, DrPH1,2; W. Ian Lipkin, MD1,3

[-] Author Affiliations

1Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York
2New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York
3The Center for Infection and Immunity, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York
4Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
5National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Maryland
6Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

JAMA Psychiatry. Published online March 25, 2015. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.3034

[dgibby]

1. Interesting.

Fits my gg nephew to a T. He had gi problems as an infant and was dx with gluten allergies as a toddler.

Thanks for posting.

[SheilaT]

2. For what it's worth, my Aspie son did not have

GI troubles as a child. No food allergies either. He tended towards upper respiratory infections, but probably no more than most babies and toddlers. No ear infections either.

I did nurse exclusively for the first six months, then continued breast-feeding until he was about two. Clearly the nursing did not prevent autism, but then it wouldn't as autism is hard-wired, and has little or nothing to do with environmental stuff. It's possible the breast-feeding is why he didn't have GI problems, but I'm sure breast-fed babies also get them. Just not him.

For what it's worth (and my two sons are only anecdotes, I know) his younger brother who is as social as a person can be, had some colic as an infant. Not as bad as some babies, but it was there nonetheless.

Added on edit: I do understand that the article makes it clear that there's no cause and effect here, just a somewhat interesting correlation.

[proverbialwisdom]

3. RE: "autism is hard-wired, and has little or nothing to do with environmental stuff."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024663144#post11

NIH/National Institute of Mental Health: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/niom-sdt011413.php
Journal of Child Neurology: https://twitter.com/HUNFoundation/status/334800401440309250

New paradigm fits some individuals.

[SheilaT]

5. I can tell you that from the day he was born my son was decidedly different from other babies.

Somehow, the notion that diet can cure autism seems to me to be up there with vaccines cause it.

Autism is a spectrum, but I do wonder that kids who are diagnosed with it and then no longer have it were correctly diagnosed in the first place.

Jenny McCarthy anyone?

[proverbialwisdom]

7. 1) I cited Dr. Tom Insel and Dr. Martha Herbert, not Jenny McCarthy.

2) I respect your observations about your own child, of course.
3) However, other parents have other observations currently discounted as coincidence regarding regression. Developing...

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2013/the-four-kingdoms-of-autism.shtml

The Four Kingdoms of Autism
By Thomas Insel on February 26, 2013

[proverbialwisdom]

8. I do not know how well these recommendations have been followed through, do you?

http://www.hhs.gov/nvpo/nvac/meetings/pastmeetings/nvacrecommendationsisoscientificagenda.pdf

Recommendations Approved by NVAC on June 2, 2009

Page 74:

Table 2. Summary of the Vaccine Safety Working Group’s prioritization of Specific Vaccine Safety Questions in the draft ISO Scientific Agenda. Percentages represent proportion of Working Group members who rated a question in the high, medium, or low category for each of the Step 1 criteria, and a yes or no in the Step 2 criteria.

Transparency is good. It makes bad questions end. Link yesterday via Twitter.

[JayhawkSD]

4. We will soon discover

that everyone in the world has autism. The only difference is in degree.

[freeplessinseattle]

6. There is more research being done in this area. finally

The report by Rodakis reviews recent research on the link between gut bacteria and ASD. It was published in Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease.

Rodakis doesn’t say antibiotics should be used to treat autism, but he believes gut bacteria play a role in the disorder.

“I'm not advocating the use of antibiotics as a long-term treatment for autism, but I would like to see serious medical research into why some children seem to improve when taking antibiotics,” Rodakis told Healthline.

http://www.healthline.com/health-news/boy-with-autism-improves-on-antibiotics-connecting-gut-bacteria-to-asd-032415