![]() Patients with GERD might strain the neck, push out the jaw, tap the throat, avoid lying down, experience sleep disruption, or refuse food. ![]() Still, it is clear that many children and adults with ASD are quite uncomfortable, perhaps due to GI disorders.īehavioral clues that a patient may be experiencing pain related to GI problems (diarrhea, constipation, gaseousness, or painful bowel movements) include arching the back, pressing the belly, or gritting teeth. In spite of this, no known genetic or neurologic links have been found to explain this prevalence. Gastrointestinal disordersĭepending on which study you read, GI disorders affect as many as 85% of patients with ASD. If a seizure occurs or epilepsy is suspected, the patient should be referred to a neurologist who is familiar with autism-friendly EEG protocols, if possible. Others might be sudden, unexplained, and marked irritability or aggression, or regression in normal development. Symptoms to probe with parents include repeated, unexplained abrupt changes in behavior such as staring spells, stiffening of muscles, involuntary jerking of limbs, or sudden sleepiness or sleep disturbance. Research found intellectual disability, an underlying neurologic disorder, family history of epilepsy, and severe cognitive delay increase the risk of epilepsy in patients with ASD. Epilepsy or seizure disordersĮpilepsy affects a remarkable 25% to 40% of patients with ASD, compared to 2% to 3% of the general population, and seizures are a major area of concern for families. That makes it difficult to tease out whether these behaviors are related to ASD or to physical discomfort caused by a co-occurring condition. Physical discomfort might prompt spikes in self-soothing repetitive behaviors as well as irritability, aggression, self-injury, and other challenging behavioral issues. Alarmingly, multiple studies show that people with ASD have significantly shorter lifespans not due to autism itself, but to accompanying mental and physical health conditions.ĭiagnosis of comorbidities can be challenging because many people with ASD have difficulty recognizing and communicating their symptoms. These issues can last throughout life, but may also appear or diminish at different developmental stages. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has a number of co-occurring physical and mental health conditions that are crucial for general pediatricians, family doctors, and nonspecialists to be aware of, since they provide the bulk of healthcare services for people with ASD.
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