Overview

• Published in Nature Human Behaviour on August 28, the review reanalyzed 248 meta-analyses spanning 200 trials and more than 10,000 participants.
• Across 19 complementary, alternative and integrative interventions, including acupuncture, music therapy, probiotics and vitamin D, no high-quality efficacy evidence emerged for core or associated autism outcomes.
• Safety reporting was rare, with fewer than half of interventions evaluated for acceptability, tolerability or adverse events.
• Use of these approaches is common, with up to 90% of autistic people reporting having tried a complementary or alternative intervention at least once.
• Researchers from Paris Nanterre University, Paris Cité University and the University of Southampton launched ebiact-database.com to support informed decisions and urged rigorous randomized trials with systematic safety monitoring.