GLUTEN-FREE DIET AND GASTROENTEROLOGICAL SYMPTOMS IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS

Abstract

Introduction. Children with autism have a high number of complaints about the presence of complaints from the gastrointestinal tract, which has led to the widespread use of dietary approaches as alternative methods of therapy for ASD. Goals and objectives. To study the frequency of gastroenterological complaints in children with autism spectrum disorders, depending on the compliance with Gfd. Materials and methods. Parents of 138 children aged 3 to 15 years with a diagnosis of Asd (F84.0 - Childhood autism (76.1%, n=101), F84.1 - Atypical autism (23.9%, n=33), of which 30 use Hdd for a long time (more than 6 months) (group 1) and 108 people with no dietary restrictions (group 2) were surveyed according to a specially developed semi structured rating questionnaire of gastroenterological symptoms in Asd. The questionnaire was based on the principle of visual analog assessment of each of the gastroenterological symptoms on a five point scale of symptom severity. The statistical analysis was carried out using the program “Statistica version10”. Results. All children with Asd included in the study have at least one complaint of changes in the gastrointestinal tract, while 53.3% had significant gastroenterological symptoms. For children with Asd using Hd, the most common complaint is diarrheal syndrome, which was observed in 86.6% of respondents, bloating was observed in 80% of patients, constipation - 73.3%. The most common gastroenterological symptoms for children with ASD who do not have dietary restrictions ispain syndrome (in the upper and lower abdomen), which is noted by 78,8 and 79.7% of respondents, respectively,which is significantly higher than in children of the first group (46.6 and 63.3%, p<0.05). Children of group 2 are 1.3 times more likely to experience other complaints from the gastrointestinal tract (66.6 and 90.7%, p<0,001). Conclusions. The use of diet therapy helps to reduce the number of complaints from the gastrointestinal tract in children with Asd, however, further research is needed to develop an individual approach to the appointment of Gfd.