鈥楶oop鈥 to rescue of autistic kids
Print Edition
There is no cure for children with autism at present. But their behavior could be improved with a 鈥減oop transplant.鈥
Shanghai Children鈥檚 Hospital opened the city鈥檚 first multidisciplinary outpatient clinic for children with autism last week. Different from normal approaches, doctors introduced a clinical trial using a donor鈥檚 stool. The first batch of 60 autistic children are taking part in a clinical trial.
The treatment is called fecal microbiota transplant, in which fecal matter or stool is collected from a tested donor, mixed with a saline or other solution, strained and infused into the colon by doing a colonoscopy or oral capsules.
According to experts, FMT is an effective treatment for patients with recurrent Clostridioides difficile colitis, a serious infection.
But now it is being trialed in many other fields thanks to a greater understanding of the brain-gut axis, which has found a connection between the central nervous and digestive systems.
鈥淔MT has an evolving medical use,鈥 said Dr Zhang Ting, director of digestive disease department of Shanghai Children鈥檚 Hospital and an expert at the autism multidisciplinary clinic. 鈥淚t is a traditional treatment and mostly used for digestive problems.鈥
After the world-leading medical journal New England Journal of Medicine published a positive reevaluation of the effects of FMT in 2013, medical industries at home and abroad expressed strong interest in the therapy and started various trials.
It has been expanded to treat different diseases, as the intestinal ecosystem is believed to influence immunity, cognition, personality, mood, sleep and eating behavior and can contribute to a range of neuropsychiatric diseases like autism and schizophrenia.
鈥淚n medical practice, we found up to 50 percent of autistic children have digestive problems and their intestinal ecosystem is unbalanced,鈥 she said.
鈥淢oreover, children with more serious intestinal problems also show more severe behavioral symptoms. Previous trials have found that while some children whose intestinal microbial environment improves after FMT, their autistic condition also gets better.鈥
She said each autistic child will undergo strict evaluation before taking part in the clinical trial.
鈥淔MT is not a cure for autism,鈥 Zhang said. 鈥淏ut it can fix certain digestive symptoms and may help some children improve their autistic problems.
鈥淭he multidisciplinary clinic is also a new trial to offer such children various treatment in line with their needs, as they needn鈥檛 go between departments, because many autistic children have other symptoms such as skin and sleep issues apart from mental symptoms.鈥
Parents with autistic children are keen to attend the clinic.
鈥淲e contacted the clinic soon after learning about this information. We don鈥檛 know whether it is useful to my child but we don鈥檛 want to miss any chance,鈥 said a local father with an 8-year-old autistic boy.
鈥淓ven if there is a very small progress that my son can achieve through the therapy, we are happy and it deserves all the efforts,鈥 he said, calling for more social awareness and support.
Doctors from Shanghai Children鈥檚 Hospital are calling for more people to become fecal donors. Healthy people who don鈥檛 smoke or drink alcohol and have a healthy diet and regular stools can contact the hospital.
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