Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is becoming a popular treatment for a variety of conditions, with national data showing it is used by about 12 percent of children.
New research shows that about 21 percent of youths enrolled in a large registry of children on the autism spectrum use CAM as part of their overall treatment plan.
Results of the study, and three others conducted by the Autism Speaks’ Autism Treatment Network (ATN), were presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
An estimated one in 110 U.S. children has autism, a group of complex developmental brain disorders that affect behavior, social skills and communication.
In this study, researchers sought to determine how often children enrolled in the ATN used CAM treatments and identify factors associated with CAM use. The ATN, which includes 14 treatment and research centers in the United States and Canada, enrolls patients ages 2-18 years with a diagnosis of autism, Asperger’s syndrome or pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). Read on…
About Tiffani Lawton, R.N.
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