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Brief Report: Association Between Autism Spectrum Disorder, Gastrointestinal Problems and Perinatal Risk Factors Within Sibling Pairs

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Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been associated with gastrointestinal (GI) problems, but the nature of this association is unclear. Parents to siblings, concordant or discordant for ASD (N = 217), participated in a web survey covering mother’s weight gain during pregnancy, maternal viral/bacterial infection and use of antibiotics, duration of breastfeeding, mode of delivery, birth weight and child GI problems. ASD was associated with GI problems and perinatal environmental risk, based on a summation of maternal infection and antibiotic use during pregnancy and/or the breastfeeding period. The association between GI problems and ASD remained within the sibling pairs (β = 1.23; p < .001) in the adjusted model. Our results indicate non-shared environmental effects on the ASD/GI association, but none of the factors examined explained the link.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Swedish Research Council (SB, RDH), Strategic Research Program in Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet (RDH and SB) and by EU-AIMS (European Autism Interventions), which receives support from the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking under grant agreement no. 115300, the resources of which are composed of financial contributions from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (Grant FP7/2007–2013), from the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations companies’ in-kind contributions, and from Autism Speaks. We are grateful to all the parents who participated in the survey, and to the Autism and Asperger Association in Stockholm County and the National Association Attention for support in recruitment. We also want to thank Varvara Sjölander Gogulan for her part in the study.

Author Contributions

JI drafted the manuscript; EP performed the statistical analyses; EK had responsibility for the data collection and coordination; RHD and SB were responsible for the planning and design of the study and its data collection. All authors contributed to the interpretation of results, reviewed the manuscript critically, and approved the final version.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Pediatric Neuropsychiatry Unit, Center for Neurodevelopmental Disorders at Karolinska Institutet (KIND), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Johan Isaksson, Elzbieta Kostrzewa & Sven Bölte

  2. Center for Psychiatry Research, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden

    Johan Isaksson

  3. Department of Neuroscience, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Johan Isaksson

  4. Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Erik Pettersson

  5. Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Rochellys Diaz Heijtz

  6. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Center for Psychiatry Research, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden

    Sven Bölte

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  1. Johan Isaksson
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  2. Erik Pettersson
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  3. Elzbieta Kostrzewa
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  4. Rochellys Diaz Heijtz
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  5. Sven Bölte
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Johan Isaksson.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest related to this study. Bölte discloses that he has in the last 3 years acted as an author, consultant or lecturer for Shire, Medice, Roche, Eli Lilly, Prima Psychiatry, GLGroup, System Analytic, Kompetento, Expo Medica, Prophase, and receives royalties for text books or diagnostic instruments from Huber/Hogrefe, Kohlhammer and UTB.

Ethical Approval

All procedures 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

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study after the nature of the procedure had been fully explained.

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Isaksson, J., Pettersson, E., Kostrzewa, E. et al. Brief Report: Association Between Autism Spectrum Disorder, Gastrointestinal Problems and Perinatal Risk Factors Within Sibling Pairs. J Autism Dev Disord 47, 2621–2627 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3169-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3169-2

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