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Review
. 2023 Feb 9:2023:5993628.
doi: 10.1155/2023/5993628. eCollection 2023.

Efficacy of Faecal Microbiota Transplantation for the Treatment of Autism in Children: Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials

Danrong Zhu  1   2   3 , Xinyu Jin  1 , Piao Guo  1 , Yue Sun  2 , Li Zhou  3 , Yan Qing  4 , Weisong Shen  1 , Guozhong Ji  2
Affiliations
Review

Efficacy of Faecal Microbiota Transplantation for the Treatment of Autism in Children: Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials

Danrong Zhu et al. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. .

Abstract

Objective: Evidence-based research methods were applied to assess the efficacy of faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for the treatment of autism in children.

Methods: We searched the Chinese Biomedical Literature, CNKI, Wanfang, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library databases to collect randomised controlled trials on faecal microbiota transplantation for the treatment of autism in children. The search included studies published from the creation of the respective database to 5 April 2022. Literature screening, data extraction, and quality evaluation were implemented by three investigators according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The meta-analysis was performed using the RevMan 5.1 software.

Results: Nine studies with population-based subjects and four studies with animal-based subjects were included. Five papers were screened for the meta-analysis. The results showed that FMT markedly reduced Autism Behaviour Checklist (ABC) scores in children with autism spectrum disorder (weighted mean difference (WMD) = -14.96; 95% confidence intervals (CI), -21.68 to -8.24; P < 0.001; I 2 = 0%). FMT also reduced Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) scores (WMD = -6.95; 95% CI, -8.76 to -5.14; P < 0.001; I 2 = 28.1%).

Conclusion: Our results indicate that FMT can benefit children with autism by reducing ABC and CARS scores, but more high-quality studies are needed to verify these results.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of included and excluded studies in the meta-analysis.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Risk of bias assessment of included studies.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Pooled estimates of ABC scores in meta-analysis.
Figure 4
Figure 4
: Pooled estimates of CARS scores in meta-analysis.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Plot of public bias. (a) Egger's test: Y axis represents the standard normal deviate (SND) of ABC scores (effect estimate). SND is defined as the sample mean divided by the standard error. The method is to use SND to make regression analysis on the precision of effect estimation. (b) Begg's test: Y axis represents standard error of weighted mean difference (WMD). WMD indicates the standardization of the effect estimate. The method is to use corrected rank correlation analysis to test the correlation between WMD and its standard error.
Figure 6
Figure 6
The plot of sensitivity analysis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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