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Relationship and Therapeutic Evolution of Food Allergy in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: treating the Overlap Syndrome

Aderbal Sabra, Joseph A Bellanti, Aderbal Sabra Filho, Selma Sabra

Introduction: The autism spectrum disorder (ASD) occurs in one out of every 54 individuals, it is characterized by disorders of neurological development and can affect any child regardless of sex, race, or socioeconomic status.

Methods: The goal of this work was to evaluate the clinical progression of ASD in 100 patients with ASD and food allergy (FA) submitted to FA treatment, the study group, compared to the 100 patients of a control group, with no diet. All ASD patients were diagnosed with food allergy and attended at the Unit of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Food Allergy and Autism at UNIGRANRIO University School of Medicine, Rio de Janeiro Brazil. All patients from the study were submitted to FA treatment of the “overlap syndrome” and the clinical progression of ASD was evaluated. After identification of the food allergens involved, treatment was performed with hypoallergenic diet followed by clinical and laboratorial reevaluation after seven months of treatment using Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC).

Results: Upon comparison of the evaluation performed before and after the FA treatment based in the 6 most frequent complaints: visual contact, speech, sleep, restrictive and repetitive behaviors, activity level and social interaction, all patients with ASD and FA of the study group had a significant evolution to partial remission after the FA treatment (p-value < 0,05). For control group, no significant improvement was observed in the.

Conclusion: Our data suggest that FA may be one of the preceding factors for the development of ASD. The FA turns neurons into the target organ and immune system homing site, making the patients suffer inflammation in the brain. Treating FA for seven months, ASD patients had evolution to partial remission.