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(HealthDay News) – There is no association between celiac disease and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), although there may be an increased risk of ASDs in patients with normal lining of the gastrointestinal tract but a positive antibody test, according to a study published online Sept. 25 in JAMA Psychiatry.
Jonas F. Ludvigsson, MD, PhD, from the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, and colleagues utilized data from 28 Swedish biopsy registers to identify 26,995 individuals with celiac disease; 12,304 individuals with inflammation; and 3,719 individuals with normal mucosa but positive celiac disease serologic test results. Comparisons were made to 213,208 age- and sex-matched controls.
The researchers found that a prior ASD was not associated with celiac disease (odds ratio [OR], 0.93; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.51–1.68) or inflammation (OR, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.4–2.64) but was associated with an increased risk of having normal mucosa but a positive celiac disease serologic test result (OR, 4.57; 95% CI, 1.58–13.22). For individuals without an ASD diagnosis at the time of biopsy, celiac disease (hazard ratio [HR], 1.39) and inflammation (HR, 2.01) were both associated with moderate excess risks of later ASDs, which was even higher in individuals with normal mucosa but a positive celiac disease serologic test result (HR, 3.09).
“Although this study found no association between celiac disease or inflammation and earlier ASDs, there was a markedly increased risk of ASDs in individuals with normal mucosa but a positive celiac disease serologic test result,” the authors write.
Two authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries.
