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About 50% of children with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to suffer from one or more gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms.The GI symptoms vary from constipation (~20%), diarrhea (~14%), Abdominal pain/discomfort (14%), bloating (12%), incontinence (12%), reflux (7.4%), nausia (6%) and difficult with bowel movements (6%).
The severity of ASD is associated with the observed GI symptoms, although no cause-effect relationship between GI symptoms and ASD was proven so far. ASD with GI symptoms patients might display significant behavioral manifestations, such as anxiety, self-injury and aggression and these may be attributed to the GI symptoms themselves. Therefore alleviation of the GI symptoms could be important also for improvement of ASD.
In addition to the possibility that the nervous system influences the gut and the GI symptoms, there is also the possibility that the gut and the microbiome within the gut may influence the central nervous system.
Considering the findings that children with ASD have a history of using significantly more antibiotics and that gut permeability increases in ASD it is reasonable to assume that ASD patients have distinct microbiomes and gut metabolites.
Nevertheless, perhaps changing the gut microbiome could lead to improvement in some of the symptoms. So far, studies on influencing ASD (behavior and GI symptoms) by addressing the gut microbiome are optimistic but mostly open-labeled and still inconclusive.
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Severe GI problems that require immediate treatment (life-threatening).
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50 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group
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Ilan Youngster, M.D
Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov
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