Probiotics and Placebos
Professor Glenn Gibson, a professor of Food Microbial Sciences at the University of Reading, announced that he is “‘cautiously optimistic’” about a link between bacteria in the gut and autism, according to an article in today’s Guardian. Professor Gibson presented his findings at the annual British Association Festival of Science in Norwich. His team found raised levels of clostridium, a bacteria in the gut, in 50 autistic children versus in 50 non-autistic children. Professor Giboson’s study involved a trial of probiotic treatment. 40 autistic children 4-8 years old were in the study; half were given a “harmless bacterium naturally present in the gut, called lactobacillus lantarum”; half were given a placebo. Parents were not told which group their child was in.
The results are inconclusive because around half of children dropped out. Some parents withdrew their kids because they did not want them to be swapped on to the placebo.
“Some of the parents worked out that their child was on the [probiotic] and didn’t want to move on to the placebo because they were seeing some positive results,” said Prof Gibson.
Parents reported that their child’s concentration and behaviour had improved, and one mother said it was “heartbreaking” to be told to move on to the placebo.
We have tried a number of biomedical treatments over the years; at this time, Charlie is on the gluten-free casein free diet and takes a probiotic, Culturelle (and I have noted that, if he does not take it, he is much more agitated, more hyper and “stimmy,” and has less language). I can more than imagine how “heartbreaking” it must have been for parents to see improvement in their children on the probiotics, and the worries of the parents about what will happen if their child were to be taken off of it—even for the sake of a scientific study.
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