No high quality evidence that complementary medicine helps the symptoms of autism

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-08-29 10:14

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A review of studies has found no high quality evidence that complementary, alternative and integrative medicines are effective for the symptoms of autism. The study explored data from over 200 trials and looked at the effects of 19 complementary medicines and therapies, including melatonin, acupuncture and music therapy. The researchers found that while several medicines, including melatonin and music therapy, showed promising results, they were supported by very low-quality evidence. The researchers also created an interactive platform to help doctors, autistic people and their families use and interpret the results.

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Journal/
conference: Nature Human Behaviour

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Paris Nanterre University, France

Funder: This work has been carried out within the framework of the ANR- 23-CE28-0019-01 EBIA-CT awarded to C.J.G. and supported by the French National Research Agency and the France 2030 programme, under reference ANR-23-IAIIU-0010 awarded to C.J.G. and R.D. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. We thank all the colleagues and their team who agreed to prepare and share their raw data, enabling the replication of their meta-analytic work (including Y. Li, P. Salazar de Pablo, K. Gurusamy and D. Fraguas). We also thank V. Athanasoula for making double-checks of extracted data, ensuring that the current work meets the highest standards. S. Cortese, NIHR Research Professor (grant no. NIHR303122), is funded by the NIHR for this research project. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR, NHS or the UK Department of Health and Social Care. S. Cortese is also supported by NIHR grants NIHR203684, NIHR203035, NIHR130077, NIHR128472, RP-PG-0618-20003 and by grant 101095568-HORIZONHLTH- 2022-DISEASE-07-03 from the European Research Executive Agency.

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