Autism Activates Nonverbal Demonstration of GI Symptoms in Children, Researchers Find

A study published recently in Autism Research said, developmental and behavioral functioning frequently linked to children with an autism spectrum disorder or ASD including sensory sensitivity, aggression, and sleep disorders may be associated with a nonverbal manifestation of gastrointestinal or GI symptoms.

According to the University of California at Davis School of Medicine's Bibiana Restrepo, MD, and colleagues, they investigated the correlation of GI symptoms such as vomiting, constipation or diarrhea, as well as developmental, adaptive, and behavioral functioning that utilize two diagnostic groups of children aged two to 3.5 years old.

The first group, as indicated in the study, comprised 255 children, with 71 girls and 184 boys who had ASD. Meanwhile, the control group involved 129 TD or typically developing children with 54 girls and 75 boys.

The study authors found that children who had ASD more often reported they experienced GI symptoms compared with TD children.

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GI Symptoms 

Results showed too that roughly 30 percent of children belonging to the ASD group experienced some gastrointestinal symptoms while about five percent of the TD children developed numerous symptoms.

Meanwhile, there was no substantial difference found when symptoms occurred between genders in either group in the study. The researchers also found that a greater number of gastrointestinal symptoms linked to an increase "in self-injurious behaviors, somatic complaints, and reduced duration and parasomnias."

 Their results, the scientists wrote in their study, add to the "growing body of evidence" that suggests that the presence of "somatic complaints, sleep, and behavioral problems" may be stimulated or worsened by coexisting medical conditions like GI discomfort.

Inconsistency in Study Findings

The study showed inconsistency in findings, discovering associations between GI symptoms and the severity of autism symptoms.

Past studies presented substantial links between gauges of the severity of autism and GI dysfunction, "especially increased rigid-repetitive behaviors and sensory hyperreactivity."

However, other studies did not find any association between the condition's severity and gastrointestinal symptoms.

The goal of the current research is to avoid past methodological problems through the use of "physician-administered semi-structured gastrointestinal interview" to improve the preciseness of GI symptom ascertainment and consistent developmental and behavioral gauges in well-categorized samples of participants with a thin range of age.

Specifically, the study authors wrote, the goals of their research were:

- to determine the GI symptoms' frequency and quantity in a "large sample of preschool-aged children with ASD and age-matched TD controls;"

- to explore sex differences in terms of presenting GI disturbances, and;

- to describe "developmental and behavioral differences" between the two groups in the study in terms of frequency and severity of gastrointestinal symptoms

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Behavioral Measures

Behavioral measures comprised consistent manifestations of problem behaviors, sensory sensitivity, sleep habits, and repetitive behaviors.

Furthermore, the outcome of the number of GI symptoms which each of the children experienced on behavioral scores was evaluated, too.

Because of the small number of children, particularly in the TD-GI subgroup who experienced more than two gastrointestinal symptoms, this evaluation was limited to the ASD-GI subgroup.

As a result, four behaviors were favorably linked to the number of GI symptoms. These behaviors, researchers found, were the "somatic complaints, SIB, parasomnias, and reduced duration of sleep."

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