Another
brief post today to draw your attention to a paper highlighted on the
Questioning Answers blog.
There are
two virtually identically probiotics one called VSL#3 and the other called
Viviomixx. As pointed out in a recent
post there is an ongoing clinical trial of Vivomixx.
Ongoing Clinical Trial of Vivomixx Probiotic in Children with Autism
Some readers of this blog are trialing VSL#3 or
Viviomixx.
The new paper is a case study of a 12 year old boy with
severe autism who was given VSL#3 at his residential care home.
He has celiac disease, but his doctors were surprised that
when the reduction in severity of abdominal
symptoms was accompanied by an improvement in his autism.
This should not come as a surprise to
regular readers. Just recall Kanner’s
subject #1, Donald Triplett, who
was later diagnosed with juvenile arthritis. When his arthritis was treated his
autism improved. This is exactly what
should be expected.
Treat your comorbidities, particularly those of an inflammatory/auto immune nature, and very likely you will improve behavior and even cognition.
Abstract
Objectives: Autism spectrum disorder is a
neurodevelopmental condition that typically displays socio-communicative
impairment as well as restricted stereotyped interests and activities, in which
gastrointestinal disturbances are commonly reported. We report the case of a
boy with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis, severe cognitive disability
and celiac disease in which an unexpected improvement of autistic core symptoms
was observed after four months of probiotic treatment.
Method: The case study refers to a 12 years old boy
with ASD and severe cognitive disability attending the Villa Santa Maria
Institute in resident care since 2009. Diagnosis of ASDs according to DSM-V
criteria was confirmed by ADOS-2 assessment (Autism Diagnostic Observation
Schedule).
The medication used was VSL#3, a
multi-strain mixture of ten probiotics. The treatment lasted 4 weeks followed
by a four month follow-up.
The rehabilitation program and the diet
was maintained stable in the treatment period and in the follow up. ADOS-2 was
assessed six times: two times before starting treatment; two times during the
treatment and two times after interruption of the treatment.
Results: The probiotic treatment reduced the severity
of abdominal symptoms as expected but an improvement in Autistic core symptoms
was unexpectedly clinically evident already after few weeks from probiotic
treatment start. The score of Social Affect domain of ADOS improved changing
from 20 to 18 after two month’s treatment with a further reduction of 1 point
in the following two months. The level 17 of severity remained stable in the
follow up period. It is well known that ADOS score does not fluctuate
spontaneously along time in ASD and is absolutely stable.
Conclusions: The appropriate use of probiotics deserves
further research, which hopefully will open new avenues in the fight against
ASD.