By Brenda Goodman HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Jan. 14, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Nearly 40 percent of preschoolers with autism are getting some kind of complementary or alternative therapy for their condition, with nutritional supplements and special diets being the most common things parents try, a new study shows.
There are no medications currently approved specifically to treat autism spectrum disorders and its core symptoms of social and behavioral problems, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Autism symptoms also include stomach upset and difficulty sleeping, among others.
So doctors and parents often rely on a variety of different, and sometimes unproven and unconventional, treatments to try to manage the wide variety of issues that can crop up.
Some experts had feared that parents might be turning to complementary therapies because they couldn't access recommended social or behavioral services or because they were trying to avoid conventional medicines, like vaccines.
But the study, published in the January issue of Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, found that wasn't the case.
Children in the study were 2 to 5 years old. Nearly all of the 453 children who had autism and another 125 with developmental disabilities were receiving the kinds of physical or behavioral therapy and other kinds of social services that are typically advised to help manage the condition. Many were also taking some kind of conventional medication for symptoms like acid reflux, constipation or mood disorders.
Yet, children getting more than 20 hours of traditional behavioral and educational services a week were more likely than others to also be receiving alternative treatments.
"So it wasn't because they couldn't get access to services. It was just the opposite: The more services you got, the more likely you were to be getting complementary medicine," said study author Dr. Robin Hansen, chief of child development and behavioral pediatrics at the University of California, Davis.
Hansen said the severity of the condition didn't appear to be a factor in the decision to try an alternative treatment. And children with autism were just as likely to be fully vaccinated as their normally developing peers.
Read more:
Alternative therapies widely used for autism