Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Acupuncture for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Review of Randomized Clinical Trials

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of acupuncture as a treatment for autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We searched the literature using 15 databases. Eleven randomized clinical trials (RCTs) met our inclusion criteria. Most had significant methodological weaknesses. The studies’ statistical and clinical heterogeneity prevented us from conducting a meta-analysis. Two RCTs found that acupuncture plus conventional language therapy was superior to sham acupuncture plus conventional therapy. Two other RCTs found that acupuncture produced significant effects compared with conventional language therapy or complex interventions. Three RCTs suggested that acupuncture plus conventional therapies had beneficial effects compared with conventional therapy alone. Four more RCTs reported that subjects who received acupuncture experienced significant effects compared with subjects who were waitlisted or received no treatment. The results of these studies provide mixed evidence of acupuncture’s effectiveness as a treatment for ASD symptoms.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allam, H., Eidine, N. G., & Helmy, G. (2008). Scalp acupuncture effect on language development in children with autism: A pilot study. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 14(2), 109–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental diorders (4th Edn., Text Revision ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Chan, A. S., Cheung, M. C., Sze, S. L., & Leung, W. W. (2009). Seven-star needle stimulation improves language and social interaction of children with autistic spectrum disorders. American Journal of Chinese Medicine, 37(3), 495–504.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cheuk, D. K. L., Wong, V., & Chen, W. X. (2011). Acupuncture for autistic spectrum disorder. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CD007849.

  • Day, S. J., & Altman, D. G. (2000). Statistics notes: Blinding in clinical trials and other studies. BMJ, 321(7259), 504.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Druss, B. G., & Rosenheck, R. A. (2000). Use of practitioner-based complementary therapies by persons reporting mental conditions in the United States. Archives of General Psychiatry, 57(7), 708–714.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Egger, M., & Smith, G. D. (1998). Bias in location and selection of studies. BMJ, 316(7124), 61–66.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ernst, E. (2006). Acupuncture–a critical analysis. Journal of Internal Medicine, 259(2), 125–137.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ernst, E., & Lee, M. S. (2008). A trial design that generates only ‘‘positive’’ results. Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, 54(3), 214–216.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ernst, E., Lee, M. S., & Choi, T. Y. (2010). Acupuncture: Does it alleviate pain and are there serious risks? A review of reviews. Pain, 152, 755–764.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ernst, E., & Pittler, M. H. (1997). Alternative therapy bias. Nature, 385(6616), 480.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ernst, E., Pittler, M. H., Wider, B., & Boddy, K. (2007). Acupuncture: Its evidence-base is changing. American Journal of Chinese Medicine, 35(1), 21–25.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hanson, E., Kalish, L. A., Bunce, E., Curtis, C., McDaniel, S., Ware, J., et al. (2007). Use of complementary and alternative medicine among children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37(4), 628–636.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Higgins, J. P. T., Altman, D. G., & Sterne, J. A. C. (2011). Chapter 8: Assessing risk of bias in included studies. In J. P. T. Higgins & S. Green (Eds.), Version 5.1.0 (updated March 2011). The cochrane collaboration, 2011. Available from www.cochrane-handbook.org.

  • Levy, S. E., & Hyman, S. L. (2008). Complementary and alternative medicine treatments for children with autism spectrum disorders. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 17(4), 803–820, ix.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, G., & Yuan, L. X. (2007). Clinical observe of acupuncture treat autism. Chinese Archives of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 25(12), 2497–2498.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, A., Edwards, J., Barden, J., & McQuay, H. (2003). Bandolier’s little book of pain. Oxford: Oxford University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ospina, M. B., Krebs Seida, J., Clark, B., Karkhaneh, M., Hartling, L., Tjosvold, L., et al. (2008). Behavioural and developmental interventions for autism spectrum disorder: A clinical systematic review. PLoS One, 3(11), e3755.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Parr, J. (2010). Autism. Clinical Evidence, 01, 311.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pittler, M. H., Abbot, N. C., Harkness, E. F., & Ernst, E. (2000). Location bias in controlled clinical trials of complementary/alternative therapies. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 53(5), 485–489.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rothstein, H. R., Sutton, A. J., & Borenstein, M. (2005). Publication bias in meta-analysis. In H. R. Rothstein, A. J. Sutton, & M. Borenstein (Eds.), Publication bias in meta-analysis. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Schulz, K., Altman, D., Moher, D., & the CONSORT Group. (2010). CONSORT 2010 Statement: Updated guidelines for reporting parallel group randomised trials. BMC Medicine, 8((1), 18.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schulz, K. F., Chalmers, I., Hayes, R. J., & Altman, D. G. (1995). Empirical evidence of bias, dimensions of methodological quality associated with estimates of treatment effects in controlled trials. JAMA, 273(5), 408–412.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Unutzer, J., Klap, R., Sturm, R., Young, A. S., Marmon, T., Shatkin, J., et al. (2000). Mental disorders and the use of alternative medicine: Results from a national survey. American Journal of Psychiatry, 157(11), 1851–1857.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vickers, A., Goyal, N., Harland, R., & Rees, R. (1998). Do certain countries produce only positive results? A systematic review of controlled trials. Controlled Clinical Trials, 19(2), 159–166.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, C., Shang, S., & Wei, X. H. (2006). The influence of electroacupuncture plus behavior therapy on social adaptive behavior ability in autism children. Shanghai Journal of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, 25(12), 19–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wong, C. L. (2008). Acupuncture and autism spectrum disorders-an assessor blinded randomized controlled trial. Hong Kong, China: University of Hong Kong.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wong, V. C. N. (2009a). Use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD): Comparison of Chinese and western culture (Part A). Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39(3), 454–463.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wong, V. C. N. (2009b). Use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) inautismspectrum disorder (ASD): Comparison of chinese and western culture (Part A). Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39(3), 454–463.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wong, V. C. N., & Chen, W. X. (2010). Randomized controlled trial of electro-acupuncture for autism spectrum disorder. Alternative Medicine Review, 15(2), 136–146.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wong, H. H. L., & Smith, R. G. (2006). Patterns of complementary and alternative medical therapy use in children diagnosed withautismspectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(7), 901–909.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wong, V. C. N., & Sun, J. G. (2002). Research on tongue acupuncture in children with autism. Brain and Development, 24, 319–320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wong, V. C. N., & Sun, J. G. (2007). Randomized controlled trial of using tongue acupuncture versus no acupunccture in children with autism sepctrum disorder. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 13(8), 880.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wong, V. C. N., & Sun, J. G. (2010). Randomized controlled trial of acupuncture versus sham acupuncture in autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 16(5), 545–553.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yan, Y. F., Wei, Y. Y., Chen, Y. H., & Chen, M. M. (2007). Effect of acupuncture on rehabilitation training of child’s autism. Zhongguo Zhen Jiu, 27(7), 503–505.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yuan, Q., Chai, T., Lang, J., Wang, R. C., & Wu, Z. F. (2007). Effect of acupuncture for autismin children: An observation of 40 cases. Journal of Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 24(3), 208–211.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmer, M., Molloy, C. A., Hollander, E., & Anagnostou, E. (2007). Complementary and alternative therapies for autism. In E. Hollander & E. Anaqnostou (Eds.), Clinical manual for the treatment of autism (pp. 259–288). Arlington, VA, USA: American Psychiatric Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Myeong Soo Lee and Tae-Young Choi were supported by KIOM (K11111).

Conflict of interest

None declare.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brain Disease Research Center, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, 305-811, South Korea

    Myeong Soo Lee & Tae-Young Choi

  2. School of Korean Medicine, Pusan National University, Yangsan, 626-870, South Korea

    Byung-Cheul Shin

  3. Complementary Medicine, Peninsula Medical School, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX2 4SG, UK

    Edzard Ernst

Authors
  1. Myeong Soo Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tae-Young Choi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Byung-Cheul Shin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Edzard Ernst
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Myeong Soo Lee.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOC 131 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lee, M.S., Choi, TY., Shin, BC. et al. Acupuncture for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Review of Randomized Clinical Trials. J Autism Dev Disord 42, 1671–1683 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-011-1409-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-011-1409-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation