Research: The Gluten- and Casein-Free Diet and Autism: Communication Outcomes from a Preliminary Double-Blind Clinical Trial

Authored by Seung, HK, Rogalski Y., Shankar M., and Elder J. in Journal of Medical Speech-Language Pathology, Volume 15, Issue 4, p. 337-345, (2007).

Article summary (posted Jan 9, 2008):

A small study finds that gluten-free, casein-free (GFCF) diet does not help children with autism to talk better.

This double-blind controlled study looked to see if the GFCF diet helped children with autism with their speech. Most of the children in the study were verbal. The authors found that the GFCF diet did not help speech in the 13 children (aged 2-16) tested. The authors cautioned that the study was small and short (6 weeks on the diet) and therefore does not mean that the diet intervention does not help children with autism. The authors believe that future studies should include more children and last longer.

Links:

You can access the original abstract and the complete paper is sometimes available for free via Google Scholar (look for entries that say "PDF" or "HTML" on the right side of the page).
autism, casein-free diet, communication, controlled study, diet, double-blind, gluten-free casein-free (GFCF), gluten-free diet, intervention, language, speech therapy, verbal
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