want to take part in a little bit of research?

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Okay, I'm designing a concept paper involving gastrointestinal disorders in autistics and their families (by autistic, I include the whole spectrum). Anyone on this forum who is autistic (diagnosed or not) or who has a family member who's autistic, feel free to take the poll. Providing I can get enough people to respond here and assuming the poll suggests a higher rate of these disorders, then this will be going into the paper to indicate that there may be higher rates of gastrointestinal disorders in the autism spectrum and their families.

And please do the poll, even if you don't have any of these symptoms. I'm wanting to try and get some percentages and can't really do that without people reporting in the negative as well.

If your doctor just said to you something like, "It seems you have Irritable Bowel Syndrome" and left it at that, consider that an official diagnosis.

For anyone who doesn't know whether their condition would be considered a gastrointestinal disorder, see these links below:

Gastrointestinal Disorders

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Inflammatory Bowel Disease

I've been diagnosed with IBS.

I have a bit of IBS and lactose intolerance.

The proverbial "explosive diarrhea" option is missing.

So sorry, Neant. I'll remember to put that in next time.

Bump.

Still needing more responses.

Never been diagnosed, but have had lifelong problems..... hate it

I CERTAINLY have something wrong with my GI tract. I've been off work for the past few months going through numerous tests inclusing x-rays, a barrium swallow and lot's of general GP tests.
My doctor has tried giving me numerous pills for acid reflux and such but they never help.
I've had problems with my tummy my whole life but it started getting really bad a few months ago.
My GP is suspecting some sort of GI problem but wants to wait for a specialist to give me a GI scope. He keeps rsuggesting a possiblity of IBS.
My kinesiologist (sp?) is very positive I have a Hiatal Hernia but since my doctor did not specify that on the Barrium Swallow request they didn't look for it - they only checked for cancer (! !!??).
I'll be seeing an internal specialist on Tuesday.

I am not diagnosed with AS, but I do believe not only do I have it, but that my Dad, Brother and Grandfather all have it in different degrees.
My brother also has GI problems although I wouldn'y be able to explain the nature of them. I know that he has as much trouble gaining and keeping weight as I do and has frequent problems with an upset stomach.

Hi Sophist! Good to see you. Gestalt's new look don't work too good on my pocket pc, and I haven't been there in a while.

I have a swallowing problem - is spasm of esophagal sphincters. Same as my sis and she has a dx, although they had no name for it.

I have self dx'd IBS. Kinda hard to miss dx of that! Yecch.

I think there tends to be a problem with allergies with people on the spectrum, and food allergies (not the swell-up-your-throat-and-die ones) will give people symptoms similar to gastrointestinal problems. I would suggest anyone who doesn't have a definite diagnosis, and maybe even some of you who do, to get tested for food allergies instead to see if your problem can be avoided with diet.

Severe reflux (which I aspirate and leads to breathing problems, people keep suggesting surgery for this), previously with gastritis and duodenitis.

And severe constipation (was hospitalized earlier this year after first developing an anal fissure then an impaction that blocked not only the intestines but the bladder), was once considered part of 'IBS' by someone but he hadn't checked out all the alternatives so who knows.

And all the GI complications of migraines (vomiting and resulting diarrhea and other lovely stuff), since migraines do not just affect the head.

Dysphagia (probably related to my movement disorder, and thus probably the only one of these things that is truly related to autism, unless migraines are more common in autistic people in which case that too).

And then early-onset gallbladder disease, which wasn't a GI problem in itself, but caused plenty of GI problems by the time it was treated.

Please note that GI conditions are some of the most common conditions out there, and real studies (not Internet surveys) have shown no difference in GI problems between autistic people and controls.

Additionally, in conditions where GI problems are linked in some way, it's usually ones like VATER syndrome (which a friend of mine has) where a syndrome affects many organs of the body including the brain, rather than GI problems causing autism or resulting from autism.

Ah I'm sorry about that. Have you tried some of the other themes out? We tried to get a fair few so people could feel as comfortable as possible.



Yes, this will be part of the paper since basically any imperfection in diet can cause GI troubles. Too little fiber, too many McDonald's burgers, heh.

anbuend, have you run across any larger statistics on the rate of GI disorders in the general population? I'd be interested in seeing those for comparison.

I don't have access at the moment to a lot of data on that stuff, but you can check some kinds of statistics on the net if you do it disease by disease instead of gastrointestinal conditions as a whole, I think.

One statistical brief I found on a USA government website said that 60% of people experience symptoms of GERD during the course of a year, and 20-30% experience them weekly.

One review (here) gave constipation rates in North America as approximately 15%.

Wikipedia claims (here) that IBS seems to be diagnosed at very different rates in different countries, and that some of the studies shouldn't be trusted. It listed the rate in the USA as about 15% and didn't say whether those were the studies among those to be trusted or not.

(I don't know how you're going to control for geography, actually, given that a lot of these things are different rates in different countries, and some are more likely to be well-studied in some countries than others. Same with different age ranges, etc. And one thing said that something, I couldn't remember what, was about twice as common in women as men, maybe constipation.)

And of course there are a bunch of diseases that are rare taken separately but lumped all together under GI conditions may be more common.

Plus some places I look list liver, pancreas, and gallbladder conditions as GI conditions and some don't. (In which case, I've also had liver problems, but as the result of seizure meds, which of course lots of autistic people take, so..... and come to think of it, alcohol causes both liver problems and other GI problems, and I imagine alcoholism to be a common problem for autistic adults, although I'm not certain of it and don't drink, personally.)

Plus increased stress (and I don't think anyone has ever teased out true PTSD rates in autistic people, let alone lesser chronic stresses) leads to higher cortisol levels leading in turn to higher rates of some GI problems.

Meaning, I'd hate to try to figure out causation in all that kind of thing as well.

But, no, I don't have the rates of GI problems as a whole in the general population off the top of my head. Do you know any places where you could find people online to ask about it? (People who would know I mean, like medical people who specialize in GI stuff.)

I've always had a nervous tummy. Stress goes right to my stomach. It varies from irritable bowels to full blown throwing up. I've always had a variety of reflux problems.

My recent gall bladder issues have added to my issues as well as my various food allergies.

My Mum has Ulcerative Colitis, and my brother has a gastrointestinal disorder of some kind. I never really asked what.

I don't currently, no. The only ones I'm really in touch with deal with the neurology side of medicine, or immunology, but that's about it.

I may search somebody out though, since most researchers tend to have their emails listed online especially if they're with a university.

I think I will instead use a control group from another online forum though. I've already set up a poll on the James Randi Educational Foundation. I figured it'd be a good control since given the forum topic, it's a more intellectual forum and therefore more likely for people on it to have autistic traits. So if the t-test still ends up significant, then it's a good sign.

I've tried so far to title the threads in the various forums so that it focuses on the research and doesn't say "GI" anywhere in the title, so that people without GI stuff will be more likely to take the time to vote rather than just those with GI issues.

There's still gonna be the issue that the poll has attracted those who are more affected. But aside from getting people to volunteer before they even know what it's about, I didn't really see another way...