Stress in autistic children, possible explanation of their digestive problems
Child autistic and your family must face numerous challenges. Some of them sometimes make it impossible to lead a normal life, for this reason the advances that can put an end to some of these people's problems. One of the latest advances is to explain the cause of some digestive conditions that these children suffer.
According to him Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental DisordersStress could explain many of the digestive problems that a child with autism.
Stress and cortisol
This group of researchers They asked why it is more frequent that some digestive problems such as constipation affect children with autism. As pointed out by those responsible for this study is that when a professional detects this discomfort in these children, they prescribe a laxative to evacuate.
However, no one has tried so far to focus on the origin of this pattern. In what is happening in the organisms of autistic children so that these digestive problems appear. The researchers wondered if cortisol, a hormone released when the body is stressed, could be the cause of these situations.
To answer this question, the researchers turned to a sample of 120 children with autism. The parents of these children gave information about the gastrointestinal symptoms of their children and general, 51 had those problems and 69 did not. These participants underwent a stress test lasting about 30 seconds.
To assess the response these children had to stress, the researchers collected saliva samples from each participant before and after the test to measure children's cortisol levels. Indeed, those children whose parents had indicated that they had gastrointestinal problems, had higher levels of this hormone.
Stress and autism
"We know that it is common for individuals with autism to have a more intense reaction to stress, and some of those patients seem to frequently experience constipation, abdominal pain or other gastrointestinal problems, "explains Dr. David Beversdorf, lead author of this research.
This specialist adds that at the time of "understand better the reason, we look for a relationship between the gastrointestinal symptoms and the immune markers responsible for the response to stress. "In this sense indeed, the increase in cortisol due to stress explained this type of problems, resulting in a more calm rhythm of life could significantly improve the daily life of children with autism.
Damián Montero
