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Abstract | Summary
| Original Article
Relation of childhood gastrointestinal
disorders to autism: Nested case-control study using data from the
UK General Practice Research Database.
Black C, Kaye, JA, Jick H.
BMJ (British Medical Journal) 24 August 2002,
Vol. 325: 419-21.
Bottom Line
Are children with autism more likely to have had gastrointestinal
disorders than children without autism?
- In this study, both children with autism and typically developing children had the same rate of stomach and bowel (GI) problems.
- None of the children developed GI problems within one month of having the MMR vaccine.
- Three children developed GI problems within 3 months of vaccination, of whom 2 had milk intolerance. The other child had 3 bouts of diarrhea 6 weeks after getting the vaccine.
- There was no evidence that children with autism were more likely than the comparison children to have had a GI disorder prior to their diagnosis of autism.
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Question: Are children with autism more likely to have had
gastrointestinal disorders than children without autism?
Background: Autism can be a devastating condition and parents
and researchers alike are anxious to find a cause for it. There
has been a lot of controversy over the past several years about
whether the symptoms seen in children with autism are related to
gastrointestinal problems. To answer this question one of the first
things that must be sorted out is whether children with autism are
more prone to gastrointestinal disease and whether that disease
is serious enough to have the potential to be responsible for the
cognitive and psychological symptoms seen in autism spectrum disorders.
Design: Nested case-control study, a statistical study of
a group with the condition of interest and a control group (in this
case, children who were born within a specified time period, but
who never went on to develop autism) selected from within a larger
study population.
Setting: England
Participants: Ninety-six children born after January 1 1988
and registered within six months of birth in the UK General Practice
Research Database (211,480 children) who were later diagnosed with
autism were matched with 449 controls without the diagnosis.
Main Outcome Measures: Documented history of inflammatory
gastrointestinal tract disease, celiac disease, any food intolerance,
or recurrent GI symptoms recorded by a child’s family doctor.
Main Results: Nine children with autism (9%) and 41 controls
(9%) had recorded gastrointestinal disorders. No child with autism
developed GI symptoms within 1 month of having the Measles, Mumps,
Rubella (MMR) vaccine and only three had GI problems that started
within 3 months of the vaccination, two of whom had milk intolerance
and one who had the first of 3 episodes of diarrhea 6 weeks after
getting the vaccine.
Conclusions: There was no evidence that children with autism
were more likely than the comparison children to have had a GI disorder
prior to their diagnosis of autism.
Only 9% of children with autism were found to have had a history
of GI problems and the symptoms were usually not serious.
There was no association found between the time when the GI symptoms
started and when the child got their MMR vaccine.
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