Complementary and Alternative Therapies for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Table 10

Massage in ASD.

Author	Year	Type and duration of study	Sample size	Type of intervention	Comparators	Dose	Outcome measure	Findings	Comments
Escalona et al. [82]	2001	Randomized parallel group; Duration: 4 weeks	(M 12; F 8); Age: 3–6 years	Massage (simple touch)	Reading stories	15 min/day	Conners Teacher and Parent scales, sleep behavior	Improvement	No blinding; No placebo condition
Silva et al. [83]	2007	Randomized parallel group; Duration: 5 months	(M 13; F 2); Age: >6 years; Children stratified according to cognitive level	Massage (Qigong) plus special education program	Special education program	15 min/day	SP, Vineland, ABC	Improvement in all scale apart from ABC and Vineland language and motor abilities	Blinding not reported; No placebo condition; Special education program may vary between children; Statistical analysis performed on 20 children (they included children in the control group who were switched to active treatment)
Silva et al. [84]	2009	Randomized, single blind, parallel group; Duration: 5 months	(M 37; F 9); Age: 3–6 years	Massage (Qigong) plus special education program	Waitlist	15 min/day	PDDBI (teacher and parent rated), ABC, SSC	Significant improvement in teacher-rated PDDBI	Teacher appears to be blinded but no detailed information; No information on waitlist are provided; No information on additional treatments; No sample size calculation
Piravej et al. [85]	2009	Randomized, single blind, parallel group; Duration: 8 weeks	(M 49; F 11); Age: 3–6 years	Massage; (Thai) plus sensory integration	Sensory integration	2 h/week	Conners’ Rating Scales, sleep behavior	Significant improvement in parent-rated conduct problems and anxiety	No placebo condition; Multicomponent intervention; No improvement in teacher-rated scales (teachers were blinded while parents not)

ABC, Aberrant Behavioral Checklist; ASD, autism spectrum disorder; PDDBI, Pervasive Developmental Disorders Behavior Inventory; SP, Sensory Profile; SSC, Sense and Self-Regulation Checklist.