Parents who research treatments for autism are confronted with a bewildering array of options, almost all of which have never been tested for safety and effectiveness. Organizations like The Cochrane Collaboration, which reviews the quality of evidence for medical treatments, are putting more effort into evaluating popular alternative treatments.

So far, the most comprehensive review of alternative autism treatments comes from two pediatricians: Susan Hyman of the University of Rochester School of Medicine Golisano Children's Hospital at Strong and Susan Levy, a clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Their 2008 analysis gave each treatment a letter grade for the quality of the research conducted up to that point; the mark, however, is not a ranking of the treatment's safety or effectiveness.

The two pediatricians based the grades on the amount of testing done on the treatments, which in most cases was skimpy at best. Research that got an "A" grade included randomized control trials, the gold standard for medical research, and meta-analyses, which compare research from different labs. A "B" went to treatments that had been studied in "well-designed controlled and uncontrolled trials," according to Hyman. The "C" grades, the lowest category (there were no "D"s or "F"s), were based on case reports, theories and anecdotes, which are not considered acceptable for mainstream medical research.

Research on just one treatment, secretin, was good enough to earn an A. In short, there is a lot more work that needs to be done toward testing popular alternative treatments and getting more potential treatments into development at research institutions and pharmaceutical companies.

Dietary supplements

B6/Mg++—Grade: B

Vitamin B6 and magnesium have been a popular treatment for autism over the past 20 years. The Cochrane Review identified three studies that compared outcomes of B6 and magnesium treatment with those for placebo or no treatment, but just 28 subjects were treated altogether. One study found no improvements; another reported improvement in IQ and social behaviors. But all the studies suffered methodological weaknesses aside from the small sample size.

DMG—Grade: B

Dimethylglycine (DMG), an antioxidant and derivative of the amino acid glycine, is marketed as an immune system booster. Two small double-blind studies of DMG found it had no effect on autism symptoms.

Melatonin—Grade: B

Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland that regulates sleep. Melatonin supplements are popular for self-treating insomnia or jet lag. Many people with autism-spectrum disorders report sleeping problems, and at least one study has found improvements in falling asleep and staying asleep.

Vitamin C—Grade: B

Vitamin C, an antioxidant, is often part of vitamin supplements given to children with autism. One study reported less repetitive behavior in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of vitamin C in 18 children with autism.

Amino Acids—Grade: C; L-Carnosine—Grade: B

Neurotransmitter abnormalities have long been a focus of autism research. Some amino acids act as neurotransmitters or prompt their production, so amino acids like tryptophan have been tried as alternative treatments. No trials have studied the benefits of supplementation with tryptophan, taurine, lysine or GABA. L-carnosine, a molecule made of two amino acids that has antioxidant properties, is marketed as an anti-aging remedy. One double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of L-carnosine in 31 children with autism found improved expressive and receptive vocabulary.

10 Comments

1. 1. JoeMerchant 10:55 AM 10/7/10

   The meta-research published here is more than a little out of date. We started HBOT after reading the double blind placebo controlled study published by Rossignol. We essentially duplicated his results in our son: increased eye contact and awareness, increased ability (and desire) to function with same aged peers.
   
   One of the most difficult concepts for people to grasp is that Autism isn't a disease that needs curing, it is a condition with a lot of challenging aspects, and the therapies we pursue with our children are aimed at reducing those challenges, such as: sensory overload, limited communication, lack of awareness and understanding. There's no single success checkbox to study, everything is a qualitative measure of improvement. The authors of the meta-study did seem to grasp that, even if they are clueless about things like the gluten/casein free diet. Our son has a dramatic, repeatable adverse reaction to gluten, or maybe wheat, exposure, but no problems with limited quantities of dairy products. Maybe the study they read found no significant effects for the majority of the population they observed, but whatever the broader findings are for the gluten free diet, we know from repeated experience over multiple settings and years that our particular child definitely suffers bad effects for 5 to 7 days following consumption of even a tiny wheat cracker.

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2. 2. frgough 08:21 PM 10/7/10

   As a father of three autistic children, I would love to see a cure. You work to improve coping mechanisms, but to sit here and say "it's not a disease with a cure" is a sure way to guarantee there never being a cure.

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3. 3. raygallup 10:58 PM 10/9/10

   
   I don't think much of this article because it references the NIH and the NIH knows nothing about the autoimmune aspects of autism or that it is an epidemic.
   The NIH is not grounded in good science when it comes to autism. They don't look at alternative treatments because the only science the NIH does is VooDoo science and parents and the public know VooDoo science is worth nothing.
   
   I know about the NIH because I tried to get them to look at the autoimmune aspects of autism in the 1990s and they had no interest since real science is not their speciality.....only VooDoo or junk science is their speciality like the Duke University study that had monkeys looking at other monkey's butts. That is what the NIH is best at.....studying monkey's butts.

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4. 4. pheebz in reply to JoeMerchant 02:01 AM 10/10/10

   Yes!!! Autism is NOT a disease! I wish more people realized this.

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5. 5. jtdwyer in reply to frgough 02:44 AM 10/10/10

   Since, most unfortunately, there is a broad range of "Autistic Spectrum Disorders", I suspect your view of its 'disease' status depends on whether your children are severely disabled or relatively mildly affected.
   
   My grandson has been diagnosed with Ausperger Syndrome, a relatively mild disorder now lumped into the Autism Spectrum Disorders. I suspect most of at least the males I'm related to also suffered (prior to its description) this condition, which often seems to improve with age or at least be minimized with personal experience, even without treatment.
   
   From my perspective then, I don't consider Asperger's to be a disease since its disabling effects are somewhat limited and the condition also seems to infer some beneficial abilities that might likely be eliminated if the more troubling aspects were subdued. I think this is especially true with the pharmaceutical industry's approach to treatment but also surgical and other approaches to 'cures'.
   
   On the other hand, I can understand that more disabling conditions should be considered separately from Asperger's, which is why I object to the broad categorization applied to these disparate if possibly related conditions. Best wishes to all.

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6. 6. bucketofsquid 05:17 PM 10/13/10

   I don't have any children with autism so I'm going to limit what I have to say. I rather hate "arm chair" parenting and "find a test that supports our conclusion" science. Severe autism is closely tied to actual brain structure. The milder forms may not be, I don't know. For the severe forms, unless you can grow a new section of brain, you can't treat or cure it. You just deal with the situation.
   
   Food allergies and intolerances lead to behavioral issues without regard to autism being present or not. In an autistic child it may be much harder to identify dietary problems because they have trouble telling you.
   
   I doubt that autism has an onset, rather I think it most likely that it is a development issue that occurs before birth but have no evidence to support this position. If this is true and we can identify the indicators we may be able to prevent autism rather than cure it. I hope we eventually find out one way or the other.

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7. 7. AJ_____ 05:03 AM 12/31/10

   I have an alternative treatment for those which have family members which suffer from autism. If you have questions, please try the treatment for 3 months and after contact me at yukay_j@hotmail.com.
   Autism is caused by multiple factors that will never be put to rest.
   Causes:
   poor food
   poor environment
   immunizations
   My treatment:
   ways to improve the food of your child:
   Don't shop at alde's or walmart for your food
   limit the meat and dairy including eggs, to 1 serving of each a day
   increase fruits and vegetables to at least 6 a day - always wash pesticides off of your food.
   don't give your child any soda/pop or fruit juice that isn't juiced by you
   purified water is best
   
   ways to improve the enviroment:
   clean your house more often - especially your child's room
   keep a sage plant (the herb) next to your child's bed and one in the most used room of the house
   If the sage plant dies, get a new one and keep getting a new one
   test for heavy metals and remove them
   
   ways to avoid too many vaccines
   make sure the vaccine is necessary and if contracting the disease will be worst than autism
   if you do get vaccines avoid them from 1 to 4 years old
   also ask for the additive list for each and every vaccine and space them out
   avoid heavy metals in any vaccine

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8. 8. SpectrumPediatrics in reply to AJ_____ 12:57 AM 1/22/11

   Good thoughts. Might include "do not let your child be vaccinated if they are running a fever or have been sick prior to appointment." and "use Ibuprophen/Motrin instead of acetomenophen prior/after getting immunized."

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9. 9. reishi9154 02:42 AM 10/27/11

   I don't place a lot of stock in these studies, whether they are supposed to be "good" studies or not, because everyone is so different. Just because one study says a particular treatment is good or bad does not necessarily mean it is going to work or not work on your child. I believe there are many different types of autism and autism causes, so it would also follow there are different kinds of treatments.
   
   For some resources on Asperger's support, I found a good site the other night, this might help to give parents some ideas. http://www.aspergerssociety.org/articles/support.htm
   
   I hope further treatments that work for autism are soon found.

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10. 10. tif0515 in reply to AJ_____ 11:57 PM 3/5/13

    Why is a sage plant important. What will it do?

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