Autism Gluten-free Diet, Casein-free Diet Did Not Improve Behavior

Autism Gluten-free Diet, Casein-free Diet Did Not Improve Behavior

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Again scientific research has dealt another blow to the idea that diets can curb the effects of autism.

Doing a web search for autism treatment here in British Columbia you will often find that the first, second and third search results on Google or Bing include treatments that have little scientific research to back them. These include chiropractics (even suggested for infants), homeopathy (one local homeopathic doctor provides homeopathic "inoculations" for childhood diseases!), and diets. Often the web pages you are directed to include testimonials of miracle cures. But successfully treating autism calls for hard work, time, and not so much for miracles. And one thing anyone in science knows, testimonials are notoriously misleading.

After viewing these pages patients often come to my office asking about gluten-free and casein-free diets. They tell me they have heard about "dramatic improvements" after the implementation of these diets plans. Research, I tell them, is pretty conclusive: diets have little impact, including on gastrointestinal problems!

Often times parents report changes when a diet is implemented, but fail to understand that along with the change in diet came changes in their expectations, changes in their behaviour, changes in their attitudes such as a reduction of anxiety and stress. And most importantly, a sudden easy to implement structured way to address and now explain the symptoms. Often they fail to see that the behaviour programming, language training and structured classrooms their children are often in may have had a far greater impact. Relying upon individual testimonials, rather than research designed to isolate the cause and effect of an intervention, is never a good way to make clinical choices.

In this study, which you can read more about through the above links, we have a randomized, double-blinded (meaning neither the participants nor the researches knew which treatment was being received), placebo controlled study, and we again find that the effects of these diets is null. (Numerous large scale studies show there is no support for these diets.)

In this study children were given snack foods with and without gluten and casein, both or neither. The researches evaluated the effects on attention, sleep, stool patterns and other characteristics of autistic behaviour. The study did not show any significant changes in any of these symptoms for any of the groups.

20 percent of parents in the Autism Treatment Network report using "alternative" treatments such as diet. 50% of these were diets. These diets has been promoted by celebrities such as Jenny McCarthy who details the diet she used with her son. However, what is not reported is that many parents report no success with these diets, or that it is far more likely that other treatments being administered at the same time have been the cause of behavioural changes. The above article reviews some of these cases.

What is important from this study is to note that, "There has not been any research to substantiate the GFCF diet for children with autism who do not (already) have celiac disease or wheat/milk allergies." In other words, yes, sometimes children have improved because they had allergies to milk, gluten, heat etc. Just as any child might. And that fact is unrelated to autism.

There are treatments that work, that have been scientifically proven to improve behaviour, communication and social interaction. Regretfully these are intensive, slow and prolonged. But they are your best bet. Here in British Columbia there are many services available to help you with behavioural issues, including trained behaviour specialists paid for through your autism funding, speech pathologists, paid for through your autism funding and in our school districts training for teachers, teacher aides and others through the Provincial Outreach Program for Autism and Related Disorders. There is hope, there are treatment, but there are few miracles. Another valuable source for behavioural experts is ACT. Whatever you do, look to treatments that have been rigorously tested, that make sense, and don't imply a simple answer you could only call "miraculous".

If you would like further information about assessment or treatment for autism, Aspergers, ADHD and other childhood disorders you can find further information on my professional web page at www.socialcognitivetherapy.com or www.relatedminds.com

I can also be contacted at drjimroche@gmail.com

Dr. Jim Roche
Registered Psychologist
778.998-7975