Aspies For Freedom

Impact of Gastrointestinal Dysfunction in Autistic Children
Friday November 18, 8:00 am ET

New Study to Evaluate Effect of an Investigational Drug on a Condition that Affects Up to Fifty Percent of Children with Autism

PHOENIX, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center is one of twelve trial sites selected to participate in a research study to evaluate an investigational medication for treatment of persistent gastrointestinal (GI) dysfunction in autistic children.

Up to fifty percent of children with autism experience persistent GI problems, ranging from mild to moderate degrees of inflammation in both the upper and lower intestinal tract.

"With autism growing at a rate of 10 to 17 percent per year, we recognize the need to address issues directly affecting these patients," says Dr. Raun Melmed, Medical Director at the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center. "Although there is no known cure, early intervention and treatments hold promise and provide hope for families living with autism."

The current study aims to determine the effect of an investigational drug on GI function through treatment as well as assess the effect on autistic behavior.

The National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders defines autism as a brain disorder that begins in early childhood and persists throughout adulthood affecting three crucial areas of development: communication, social interaction and creativity.

Autism is the most common of the Pervasive Developmental Disorders, affecting an estimated 1 in 250 births (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003). This means that as many as 1.5 million Americans today are believed to have some form of autism.(1)

To find out more about the study, please contact Sharman Ober-Reynolds RN, C-FNP at 602-340-8717.

Press Release Source: Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center

(1) Autism Society of America(http://www.autism- society.org/site/PageServer?pagename=whatisautism)

Autism Diva comments on the lack of valid studies to support the claim that autistic children have more GI problems than average:

http://autismdiva.blogspot.com/2005/11/a...ature.html

Although the stereotype of autistic children suffering from horrendous abdominal pain is widespread in the media, the science doesn't support it.

We had a poll on bowel problems here, and quite a few of us had IBS and similar. Are these children showing symptoms of IBS, caused by stress, or something else, which continues into adulthood?
Why dont they do any studies on how adults are affected, it may be a simpler way of them finding a cause, for example if it is stress related.

Yes Amy I remember that poll. I also have to say that I have GI problems. One thing I've noticed among aspies is that many of us just don't or can't accept that there could be anything wrong with us. It seems some us think we are some kind superior beings. We can't have GI problems, executive dysfunction, or impaired imagination because this would mean we aren't so superior. It could go deeper than that though. Why do some us feel this way? I accept my AS as both a blessing and a curse.

Perhaps there's a certain amount of "over-compensation" going on here. Many of us are at the bottom of the barrel and we know it. But we have to make our way through life somehow, and if that means "talking ourselves up" then we may have to do just that. No one else will do it for us!

Stella

Just a weird trail of thought I had when I was reading The Biology of Plasmids.  

Plasmid DNA can confer many selective advantages upon its host (e.g. antibiotic resistance).  Because of the increased metabolic load and possible incompatibilities with its host's chromosomes (e.g. replication, Plasmid copy number regulation...) it initially divides less frequently then its non-Plasmid rivals. After many generations the bacteria’s chromosomes co-evolve with the new Plasmid DNA. After this happens many of the disadvantages of carrying the Plasmid are significantly less.

So if there was a world with a selective pressure on the side of autistic traits the prevalence of comorbid conditions would probable decrease. It depends how important the autistic traits are for survival and how large the disadvantages of comorbids are.

An interesting day dream if nothing else.

The main reason why I write about positive characteristics and constructive ways of dealing with problems, while avoiding language that suggests there is something "wrong with us," is because the media is filled with extreme negative images and stereotypes that must be refuted if we are to survive.

The article at the beginning of this thread asserts that 50 percent of autistic children are suffering from persistent GI problems, but it gives no source to support that claim.  Unsubstantiated assertions of that sort have led to a social climate in which many people are giving money to pro-cure groups for eugenics research, and thinking of themselves as kind and charitable for doing so, because they have been persuaded that autism is such a tragic curse that it's better to be dead than autistic.

Three cheers for Autism Diva, Michelle Dawson, and the others among us who take the time to study the science and to point out exactly where the anti-autism propaganda lacks scientific basis.

What most bothers me about the OP is that they are developing and testing a drug to treat a condition that is easily treated with diet alone.

My own son is on a gluten free dairy free diet. He is autistic, but we placed him on it during a serious intestinal crisis, and found that it alleviated symptoms throughout his whole body, including eliminating his exzema in entirety.

For what it's worth, for a while, he was less prone to anxiety and the different behaviors that anxiety would bring on. My suspicion is that he was so much more comfortable physically that he was able to relax in his own skin a little more. We are seeing more anxiety again in him, though, and I think that if the diet had anything at all to do with this, it was a temporary effect. Still, we keep him on it (he agrees to being on it because he knows that gluten was making him very, very sick) because of health reasons. If any of this has a damned thing to do with autism, I have no idea.