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 A new human study suggests that acupuncture may have beneficial effects in children with autism spectrum disorders.
Autism spectrum disorders are characterized by problems with communication, social interaction, as well as unusual, repetitive behaviors. Examples of these disorders include autism, Asperger's syndrome, Childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and Rett syndrome.
In the study, 50 children with autism were randomly assigned to either tongue acupuncture or sham acupuncture for eight weeks. In the sham acupuncture group, acupuncture needles were inserted in non-acupoints on the tongue.
By the end of the study, both groups experienced significant improvements in various developmental and behavioral aspects of autism, such as hand-eye coordination, social skills and language comprehension. Overall, the true acupuncture group tended to show greater improvements in their symptoms. However, the only statistically significant improvement in the treatment group as compared to the control group was in self-care and cognition domains of the Functional Independence Measure for children.
The researchers call for additional, long-term research in the area.
For more information about acupuncture, please visit Natural Standard's Health & Wellness database.
- Natural Standard: The Authority on Integrative Medicine. www.naturalstandard.com
- Virginia Chun-Nei Wong, Jie-Guang Sun. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. May 2010, 16(5): 545-553. doi:10.1089/acm.2007.0768.
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