Join us for the Autism and Mental Health Symposium June 9, 2018 to explore barriers to access to mental healthcare for people on the autism spectrum. Register here.

​It’s well established in research literature that people with autism and related disorders have an increased vulnerability to mental health challenges. Despite this fact the mental health resources available to autistic people and their families in their communities are limited. In Onondaga County the clinician to patient ration in mental health is 1 to 202. In that number few are able or willing to meet the mental healthcare needs of autistic people. Families and individuals are left with little or no options for addressing their mental health care needs. We can do better.

Register now for our Autism and Mental Health Symposium to explore the barriers to access. Be part of the solution.

Gluten free diets, casein free diets, elimination diets, supplements, or any combination thereof. Are they any good for people on the autism spectrum? Research still says, no doesn’t really look like it.

Over a decade ago when my children were first diagnosed with autism gluten free and casein free diets were the thing to do to treat autism. I did some digging to find the scientific basis for the belief in this special diet. What I found were studies with small sample sizes, no control groups or poorly matched control groups, no blinded or doubled trials (researchers and participants often knew what they were getting), subjective measurements of outcomes, and no clear mechanism for how the diet was supposed to work or what is was supposed to improve.

I tried a gluten free diet anyway because, hey it was only food. After a year my children were still their autistic selves. I left behind the expensive food and dubious claims about special diets.
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Fast forward to today and there have been some high-quality studies done on not only gluten free and casein diets but also the various restriction/elimination diets that parents try as well as the supplements they are often encouraged to use as treatment for their children’s autism. The results are still underwhelming.