Research shows autistic symptoms improve on a gluten and casein free diet

A study carried out in Norway by Knivsbert, Reichelt, Høien and Nødland and published in Nutritional Neuroscience, 2002 shows some very interesting results which do not yet seem to have hit the mainstream.

The researchers undertook a single blind study in which two groups of 10 children, the diet group and the control group, were tested over a period of one year, with significant improvements observed in the diet group.

Both groups were given access to special educators on a regular basis. The parents of the children in the diet group also received comprehensive written and oral information about the gluten and casein free diet from a dietician.

Although there was some improvement in both groups, the improvement in the diet group was striking. For example, "extreme anxiety... caused by the sound of the school bell, noises from a lawn mower, sleeping in a new bed, or entering a room with many people... [was] drastically reduced in the diet group, but not in the control group." and the tendency for some children to "dislike and reject physical contact even from their parents... was no longer a problem in the diet group after the experimental period was over."

The researchers report that no statistically significant changes occurred in the control group except in the development of linguistic skills (though these were not as marked as those in the diet group), but significant positive changes were registered in the diet group for peer relationship, anxiety, empathy, physical contact, verbal communications, eye contact, reaction when spoken to, language peculiarities, judgment of dangerous situations, number of interests, extremes of restlessness or passiveness, attention, social and emotional development, communicative development, cognitive development, sensory/motor development, autistic behavior, non-verbal cognition, linguistic skills and motor competence.

This research was published seven years ago. It seems very strange that it's virtually been ignored for so long. Is there a conspiracy by the drugs manufacturers to downplay methods of treating autism that don't involve regular prescriptions? If so, how were they able to achieve this?

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