Atlanta, Florida – A study headed by Williams Sharp a behavioural paediatric psychologist at the Emory University School of Medicine, in Atlanta has confirmed what most parents of autistic children will already know, that there is a higher rate of gastrointestinal complaints in children with an autism diagnosis.
The study proves that there is a link to digestive problems which researchers think is predominantly behavioural.
After looking at over 961 control studies on the subject, Sharp and his crack team of researchers found that only 15 of these studies contained a control group for comparison, but even those studies contained anomalies, such as stomach complaints reports from parents whilst other studies counted only the child’s medical chart. These discrepancies indicated there was little or no consistency between previous studies.
The most common complaint seemed to be constipation of diarrhoea. Autism daily newscast have reported previously on gut flora, diet and breast feeding may all be contributory factors and these have all been looked at in previous research.
Dr Sharp told CBS News:
“We really searched high and low for good studies, and we only found 15 studies on this over 32 years”
Further research is warranted from this initial study, and work into the link discovered is continuing in Atlanta.