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Behavioral Phenotype of ASD Preschoolers with Gastrointestinal Symptoms or Food Selectivity

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Abstract

This study investigated the prevalence and type of gastrointestinal (GI) and food selectivity (FS) symptoms in 163 preschoolers with ASD, and their possible links with core ASD features and emotional/behavioural problems. 40.5% of children with ASD had at least one severe GI symptom or FS. Preschoolers with and without GI symptoms and with and without FS were significantly different on several emotional/behavioural problems and restrictive/repetitive behaviours, whereas they did not differ significantly on performance IQ and autistic severity. The GI plus FS group presented with Sleep Problems, Self-injurious Behaviors and Anxiety Problems. Results indicated the need for early identification of GI disturbances and FS in order to design tailored intervention for these symptoms frequently associated to challenging behaviours in ASD.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the participants and their families.

Funding

This work was partially supported by Ricerca Corrente, and the “5×1000” voluntary contributions, Italian Ministry of Health. ES was partially supported by the Italian Ministry of Health and by Tuscany Region with the Grant ‘GR-2011-02348280’.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Margherita Prosperi and Elisa Santocchi have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRCCS Stella Maris Foundation, Viale del Tirreno 331, 56018, Calambrone, Pisa, Italy

    Margherita Prosperi, Elisa Santocchi, Antonio Narzisi, Francesca Fulceri, Fabio Apicella, Roberta Igliozzi, Angela Cosenza, Raffaella Tancredi, Sara Calderoni & Filippo Muratori

  2. University of Perugia, Piazza G. Ermini, 1, 06123, Perugia, Italy

    Giulia Balboni

  3. Stella Maris Mediterraneo Foundation, Chiaromonte, PZ, Italy

    Margherita Bozza

  4. Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Sara Calderoni & Filippo Muratori

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  1. Margherita Prosperi
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Contributions

MP and ES participated in the design of the work and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. GB and AN analyzed the data and participated in the design of the work. MB, FF, FA, RI, AC, RT evaluated the patients and collected the data. FM and SC participated in the design of the work, helped to evaluate, edit the manuscript and performed critical revision. Each Author has seen and approved the submission of this version of the manuscript and takes full responsibility for the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sara Calderoni.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Written informed consent was obtained from parents or legal guardians of all individual participants.

Additional information

This paper is based on an earlier study (Fulceri et al. 2016a): a new cohort of patients with ASD was evaluated in the current study.

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Prosperi, M., Santocchi, E., Balboni, G. et al. Behavioral Phenotype of ASD Preschoolers with Gastrointestinal Symptoms or Food Selectivity. J Autism Dev Disord 47, 3574–3588 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3271-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3271-5

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