What many parents of children with autism have long suspected -- that autism and gastrointestinal complaints often go together -- is now supported by a new study.
The study, a review of medical research, found that children with autism are more than four times as likely as their typically developing peers to have digestive difficulties such as abdominal pain, diarrhea or constipation.
The study authors stress that doesn't mean the gastrointestinal troubles are the cause of autism, as one widely discredited theory has suggested, or that something about the biology of autism causes stomach complaints.
No cause-and-effect relationship has been established.
But the researchers say the link between the two problems is strong enough that it deserves more investigation.
"We really searched high and low for good studies, and we only found 15 studies on this over 32 years," said study author William Sharp, a behavioral pediatric psychologist at the Emory University School of Medicine, in Atlanta.
"This is something that is a prominent concern for kids with autism, and that we should refocus our scientific endeavors to get an evidence-based approach for assessment and treatment of these kids," said Sharp, who specializes in feeding problems in children with autism.
25 Photos
Autism isn't always easy to spot, but this simple checklist can help
Out of a pool of 961 possible studies, only 15 included a control group. But even those studies had some problems, Sharp conceded. They used different definitions for frequent complaints such as diarrhea and constipation. Many relied on reports from parents to document a problem while others only counted stomach issues if they were noted in a child's medical chart.
Read more from the original source:
Gastro woes more common in kids with autism, review finds