Sunday, May 23, 2010
Censored on Separate Study Shows Gluten/Casein Free Diet Can Help in Autism
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Posted at AoA on May 23, 2010 at 1:11pm (EDT)
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the full study text is not available without paying for it, but the abstract (http://tinyurl.com/2vvd4vo) contains a limitation of the study noted by the authors:
"In the absence of a placebo condition to the current investigation, we are, however, unable to disqualify potential effects derived from intervention outside of dietary changes."
It seems, from this, that the children may have been receiving other treatments that were not controlled for and which may account for the difference in outcomes. I'm curious whether familial history of gluten or casein intolerance was documented among the children who showed improvement, as that, rather than their autism, may be the primary factor to consider in whether such a diet would help.
The abstract also does not clarify what is meant by "significant improvement" in the scores. Without seeing the full study and viewing the actual numbers, it is hard to come to a reasonable conclusion on the validity of this study.
Since neither the linked article nor the Age of Autism version mention it, the study title is "The ScanBrit randomised, controlled, single-blind study of a gluten- and casein-free dietary intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders". Authors: Whiteley, Paul; Haracopos, Demetrious; Knivsberg, Ann-Mari; Reichelt, Karl Ludvig; Parlar, Sarah; Jacobsen, Judith; Seim, Anders; Pedersen, Lennart; Schondel, Maja; Shattock, Paul.
This comment is being copied elsewhere.
Has AoA self-censored? Their article seems to have gone missing.
ReplyDelete@JoyMama
ReplyDeleteWeird. The link seemed broken, but after doing a Google search for it, my link was still correct. I edited the link in the post and it appears to work correctly now.
Thanks for the heads-up.