Complementary and Alternative Therapies for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Table 4

Chelation in ASD.

Author	Year	Type and duration of study	Sample size	Type of intervention	Comparators	Dose	Outcome measure	Findings	Comments
Adams et al. [49]	2009	Randomized, double blind, placebo controlled, parallel group; Duration: 3 days	(M 69; F 8); Age: 3–8 years; Each subject was subjected to one round of DMSA to eliminate low metal excretor	Dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) therapy, Completers	Placebo, Completers	Sic round of DMSA in three days	ATEC, PDD-BI, SAS, ADOS, PGI	No significant differences between active treatment and control	Very high attrition rate; No power calculation; Not real placebo (each subjects in the placebo group received a round of DMSA); Multicomponent intervention (patients received before enrollment glutathione)
D. A. Geier and M. R. Geier [50]	2006	Open label; Duration: minimum 2–maximum 7 months	(M 10; F 1); Age: 6–14 years	(1) Meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid; (2) Leuprolide acetate	None	(1) 10 mg/kg twice daily; (2) 15 mg every 28 days	ATEC	Significant improvement	Open label; Small sample size; Multicomponent intervention; Potential conflict of interest

ADOS, Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule; ATEC, Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist; ASD, autism spectrum disorder; PDD-BI, Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Behavior Inventory; PGI, Parent Global Impressions; SAS, Severity of Autism Scale.