Vitamin and Mineral Supp helps Autism (kids and adults)

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Effect of a vitamin/mineral supplement on children and adults with autism. BMC Pediatr. 2011 Dec 12;11(1):111. [Epub ahead of print]

JB, Audhya T, McDonough-Means S, Rubin RA, Quig D, Geis E, Gehn E, Loresto M, J, Atwood S, Barnhouse S, Lee W. BACKGROUND:

Vitamin/mineral supplements are among the most commonly used treatments for autism, but the research on their use for treating autism has been limited. METHOD:

This study is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled three month vitamin/mineral treatment study. The study involved 141 children and adults with autism, and pre and post symptoms of autism were assessed. None of the participants had taken a vitamin/mineral supplement in the two months prior to the start of the study. For a subset of the participants (53 children ages 5-16) pre and post measurements of nutritional and metabolic status were also conducted. RESULTS:

The vitamin/mineral supplement was generally well-tolerated, and individually titrated to optimum benefit. Levels of many vitamins, minerals, and biomarkers improved/increased showing good compliance and absorption. Statistically significant improvements in metabolic status were many including: total sulfate (+17%, p=0.001), S-adenosylmethionine (SAM; +6%, p=0.003), reduced glutathione (+17%, p=0.0008), ratio of oxidized glutathione to reduced glutathione (GSSG:GSH; -27%, p=0.002), nitrotyrosine (-29%, p=0.004), ATP (+25%, p=0.000001), NADH (+28%, p=0.0002), and NADPH (+30%, p=0.001). Most of these metabolic biomarkers improved to normal or near-normal levels. The

supplement group had significantly greater improvements than the placebo group on the Parental Global Impressions-Revised (PGI-R, Average

Change, p=0.008), and on the subscores for Hyperactivity (p=0.003), Tantrumming (p=0.009), Overall (p=0.02), and Receptive Language (p=0.03). For the other three assessment tools the difference between treatment group and placebo group was not statistically significant. Regression analysis revealed that the degree of improvement on the Average Change of the PGI-R was strongly associated with several biomarkers (adj. R2 = 0.61, p CONCLUSIONS:

Oral vitamin/mineral supplementation is beneficial in improving the nutritional and metabolic status of children

with autism, including improvements in methylation, glutathione, oxidative stress, sulfation, ATP, NADH, and NADPH. The supplement group had significantly greater improvements than did the placebo group on the

PGI-R Average Change. This suggests that a vitamin/mineral supplement is a reasonable adjunct therapy to consider for most children and adults

with autism. Trial registration number NCT01225198.