Randomized controlled trial of vitamin D supplementation in children with autism spectrum disorder
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, First published: Oct 2016 DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.12652
Khaled Saad, Ahmed A. Abdel-Rahman, Yasser M. Elserogy, Abdulrahman A. Al-Atram, Amira A. El-Houfey, Hisham A. K. Othman, Geir Bjørklund, Feiyong Jia, Mauricio A. Urbina, Mohamed Gamil M. Abo-Elela, Faisal-Alkhateeb Ahmad, Khaled A. Abd El-Baseer, Ahmed E. Ahmed, Ahmad M. Abdel-Salam
Retracted: This study was retracted by publisher May 2019 "A number of significant discrepancies emerged between the re‐analysis and the findings reported in the paper both in terms of means and standard deviations of key outcome variables across the trial. "
| At start | 4 months later | |
| CARS Autism Rating Scale | 37 | 30 |
| Irritability | 22 | 10 |
| Social Responsiveness lower is better | 75 | 71 |
| Hyperactivity | 26 | 16 |
| Lethargy | 18 | 11 |
| Inappropriate Speech | 7 | 4 |
| Vitamin D all had > 20 ng at start | 26 ng | 46 ng |
VitaminDWiki speculates even more improvements if
- Only considered those children gettting > 40 ng of Vitamin D
- Had started with a loading dose (4 months is a fairly short time)
- Give more Vitamin D to children for poor Vitamin D Receptor - which increases the risk of Autism by 2X
Note: Vitamin D Receptor test costs $23.
Wild guess: 50% more vitamin D would be needed for those with poor VDR - Had added some cofactors - Magnesium and Omega-3
Both are often mentioned with Autism and both deal with poor Vitamin D Receptors
See also VitaminDWiki
- Autism is associated with low vitamin D – meta-analysis Oct 2015
- Autism much more likely if poor Vitamin D Receptor – many studies
- Autism and Vitamin D massive review – latitude, season, migration, VitD levels and intervention – April 2016
- Autism and vitamin D evidence - Cannell Feb 2016
- Autism Causes, Prevention and Treatment: Vitamin D Deficiency etc. – Book April 2015
- Overview Autism and vitamin D
- Autism treated by Vitamin D: Dr. Cannell - video June 2013
- Recommend 100 IU of vitamin D per kg of infant - Poland July 2011 has the following chart
This study used a dose which was 3X larger: 300 IU/kg == 3,000 IU/25 lbs
Files in both categories of Intervention AND Autism
- Infants getting an additional 800 IU of vitamin D for 2 years had 60% fewer psychiatric symptoms at age 7 – RCT May 2023
- Autistic symptoms reduced by Vitamin D and or Omega-3 – RCT March 2019
- Autism risk reduced 2X by prenatal vitamins (Vitamin D or Folic) – Feb 2019
- Autistics have half of the response to Vitamin D – RCT Oct 2018
- Autism problems reduced by Vitamin D, Omega-3 – RCT Oct 2018
- Autism treated by Vitamin D (monthly injection of 150,000 IU) – June 2017
- Autism in children reduced by Vitamin D (used 300 IU per kg per day) – RCT Oct 2016
- Autism and Vitamin D massive review – latitude, season, migration, VitD levels and intervention – April 2016
- Autism rate in siblings reduced 4X by vitamin D: 5,000 IU during pregnancy, 1,000 IU to infants – Feb 2016
- Autism decreased in 8 out of 10 children supplemented with vitamin D – April 2015
- Autism cured in a child with Vitamin D, Dr. Cannell comments and cofactor recommendations – March 2015
Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki
Video about this study which proved benefit
and previous studies of Omega-3 and Vitamin C which found no benefit
Dietary Supplements for Autism NutritionFacts.org Sept 2018
Background:
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a frequent developmental disorder characterized by pervasive deficits in social interaction, impairment in verbal and nonverbal communication, and stereotyped patterns of interests and activities. It has been previously reported that there is vitamin D deficiency in autistic children; however, there is a lack of randomized controlled trials of vitamin D supplementation in ASD children.
Methods
This study is a double-blinded, randomized clinical trial (RCT) that was conducted on 109 children with ASD (85 boys and 24 girls; aged 3–10 years). The aim of this study was to assess the effects of vitamin D supplementation on the core symptoms of autism in children. ASD patients were randomized to receive vitamin D3 or placebo for 4 months. The serum levels of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (25 (OH)D) were measured at the beginning and at the end of the study. The autism severity and social maturity of the children were assessed by the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC), Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), and the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC). Trial registration number: UMIN-CTR Study Design: trial number: UMIN000020281.
Results
Supplementation of vitamin D was well tolerated by the ASD children. The daily doses used in the therapy group was 300 IU vitamin D3/kg/day, not to exceed 5,000 IU/day. The autism symptoms of the children improved significantly, following 4-month vitamin D3 supplementation, but not in the placebo group. This study demonstrates the efficacy and tolerability of high doses of vitamin D3 in children with ASD.
Conclusions
This study is the first double-blinded RCT proving the efficacy of vitamin D3 in ASD patients. Depending on the parameters measured in the study, oral vitamin D supplementation may safely improve signs and symptoms of ASD and could be recommended for children with ASD. At this stage, this study is a single RCT with a small number of patients, and a great deal of additional wide-scale studies are needed to critically validate the efficacy of vitamin D in ASD.