What are the most common diseases associated with autism?
People with autism spectrum disorders often suffer from various additional health problems. Due to communication difficulties, comorbidities are not properly recognized and treated.
Particular attention should be paid to recurrent infections of the upper respiratory tract, which may be associated with allergies or immunodeficiency. Chronic gastrointestinal symptoms (e.g. diarrhea, constipation, alternating bowel movements, abdominal pain, flatulence, nausea, vomiting) affect 20-80% of children and adults with ASD. Autism spectrum disorder may also be associated with epilepsy. It is believed that it affects approximately 20-30% of people with autism, and is more common when autism is accompanied by intellectual disability.
In addition, people with ASD often suffer from sleep disorders, depression, anxiety, and mood disorders.
It is worth emphasizing that health problems are a very common cause of difficult behaviors observed in people with autism, such as screaming, aggression, self-harming behavior, or pain posturing (assuming a characteristic body position – bent, curled – which signals abdominal pain). That is why it is so important to care for their health. However, due to the often occurring inability to inform the environment about their ailments, health problems are not properly diagnosed or treated. We often come across a situation where doctors do not treat, for example, digestive problems or those related to sleep, claiming that their cause is autism. Particular care for the state of health should be observed in the case of people with a severe degree of autistic disorders who cannot communicate, and due to the often coexisting problems in the reception and processing of sensory stimuli, they may have impaired pain perception and not signal it.
Untreated somatic problems deteriorate the functioning of people with ASD, and also reduce the effectiveness of therapeutic activities.
SYNAPSIS Foundation http://synapsis.org.pl/
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