Summary: | In autism spectrum disorders, many parents resort to alternative treatments and these are generally perceived as
risk free. Among these, the most commonly used is the gluten-free casein-free diet. The objective of this work
was to conduct a systematic review of studies published from 1970 to date related to the gluten-free casein-free
diet in autism spectrum disorders patients. Few studies can be regarded as providing sound scientific evidence
since they were blinded randomised controlled trials, and even these were based on small sample sizes, reducing
their validity. We observed that the evidence on this topic is currently limited and weak. We recommend that it
should be only used after the diagnosis of an intolerance or allergy to foods containing the allergens excluded in
gluten-free casein-free diets. Future research should be based on this type of design, but with larger sample sizes.
|