FOOD ALLERGY AND INFANTILE-AUTISM

The etiopathogenesis of infantile autism is still unknown. Recently so me authors have suggested that food peptides might be able to determin e toxic effects at the level of the central nervous system by interact ing with neurotransmitters. In fact a worsening of neurological sympto ms has been reported in autistic patients after the consumption of mil k and wheat. The aim of the present study has been to verify the effic acy of a cow's milk free diet (or other foods which gave a positive re sult after a skin test) in 36 autistic patients. We also looked for im munological signs of food allergy in autistic patients on a free choic e diet. We noticed a marked improvement in the behavioural symptoms of patients after a period of 8 weeks on an elimination diet and we foun d high Levels of IgA antigen specific antibodies for casein, lactalbum in and beta-lactoglobulin and IgG and IgM for casein. The levels of th ese antibodies were significantly higher than those of a control group which consisted of 20 healthy children, Our results lead us to hypoth esise a relationship between food allergy and infantile autism as has already been suggested for other disturbances of the central nervous s ystem.