P0637 the Specific Carbohydrate Diet - A Treatment for Crohn???s Disease?

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet in the Treatment of Crohn’s Disease: A Systematic Review

“…Fridge, Kerner, and Cox [19] described the cases of two school-age children with CD, one whom elected to follow the SCD as her main course of treatment and one who started the diet while also being treated with steroids. Both children demonstrated normalization in laboratory results and were reported to be symptom free within 3-6 months after beginning the SCD.…”

“…An additional strength of the included research is the detail in which all researchers reported treatment exposures, as well as the fact that potential confounders such as concomitant medication use were acknowledged and commented upon. Additionally, many of the studies used validated methods for both collecting data and comparing outcomes [13,15,16,[19][20][21]23] . Finally, one study utilized a control group, lending strength to the findings [15] .…”

“…Due to the limited research that is available regarding the efficacy of the SCD in the treatment of CD, as previously mentioned, only studies of low and moderate quality were included in the current review. Two studies utilized a case study design, which is prone to selection bias and makes results especially difficult to generalize to the population as a whole due to particularly small sample size [19,20] . Alternatively, two studies used a retrospective design in the form of chart reviews [15,23] .…”

Nutrition and Nutritional Management of Crohns Disease in Children and Adolescents

“…In the event of intestinal obstruction or transient abnormalities of digestion such as disaccharide intolerance in those with severe small bowel disease, short-term dietary restrictions are often required to alleviate symptoms [56,59]. The putative benefits of specific carbohydrate diets have not been submitted to detailed scientific scrutiny, despite isolated case reports of clinical efficacy [60].…”