Short report: autistic gastrointestinal and eating symptoms treated with secretin: a subtype of autism

Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) are chronic, lifelong disorders for which there is as yet no effective cure, and medical management remains a challenge for clinicians. The current report describes two patients affected by autistic disorder with associated gastrointestinal symptoms. They received multiple doses of intravenous secretin for a six-month period and were assessed with several specific outcome measures to evaluate drug effect. The administration of secretin led to some significant and lasting improvement in only one case. Gastroesophageal reflux may contribute to some of the behavioural problems and explain the effect of secretin since its suppressive effect on gastric secretion is well known. It is also true that autistic children with gastroesophageal reflux and a higher IQ could constitute a subtype which responds to secretin administration and that could be labelled as a "gastrointestinal subtype".