Acupuncture for Non-Verbal Autistic Children: Randomized Controlled Trial

Objective To study the efficacy, safety, and the alterations of brain neurochemical of short-term acupuncture for children with non-verbal autism spectrum disorder. Methods Study design: randomized, simple-blind, controlled trial. Non-verbal autistic children were randomly assigned to acupuncture group (n=24) or control group (n=19). The acupuncture group received 20 sessions for two acupoints on head [Temporal Anterior Oblique (MS6) under 2/5 and Temporal Posterior Oblique (MS7) under 2/5] over 4 weeks. Primary outcome measures comprised of Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC), Reynell Developmental Language Scale (RDLS), Pediatric Evaluation Disability Inventory (PEDI) and Clinical Global Impression-Improvement (CGI-I) scale. Secondary outcome measures included Gesell Development Diagnosis Scale (GDDS)/ Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Fourth edition (WPPSI-IV)/Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth edition (WISC-IV), brain Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) and Weekly Parental Report. Results There were significant ameliorations in the self-care (p=0.045) and self-care assistant (p=0.019) domains of PEDI, and CGI-I (p=0.003) in the acupuncture group, in contrast to control group. The significantly better social initiation (P=0.003), receptive language (p=0.002), pointing (p=0.036), imitation (p=0.025), and motor skills (p=0.036) were also revealed, regarding the Weekly Parental Report. As for the brain MRS, the acupuncture group showed significantly decreased the ratio of Choline /Creatine (p=0.037) at the left grey matter of Inferior frontal gurus and increased the concentrations of Creatine (p=0.036) at the right grey matter of superior temporal gurus. Mild side effects of irritability at initial sessions during acupuncture were found. Conclusion A short-term intensive acupuncture for selected points is helpful to improve specific functions of non-verbal autistic children, especially for self-care ability, which may be due to regulating cellular renewal and energy metabolism after acupuncture.