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. 2023 Dec 16;71(5):756-766.
doi: 10.1080/20473869.2023.2283646. eCollection 2025.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Autism Spectrum Disorder: parents' experience from a middle-income European country

Irena Stojanovska  1 , Vladimir Trajkovski  1
Affiliations

Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Autism Spectrum Disorder: parents' experience from a middle-income European country

Irena Stojanovska et al. Int J Dev Disabil. .

Abstract

Introduction: This study quantitatively evaluated the use and perceived efficacy of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) treatments among individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Macedonia, a middle-income country in Southeast Europe.

Methods: A web-based survey was conducted among 103 parents of 103 individuals with ASD, and descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests were used to analyze the data.

Results: For the purpose of this study, special diets and the other CAM treatments were analyzed separately. CAMs were used by 76% of the participants with ASD, while 29% were on a special diet. Over 90% of parents positively rated the efficacy of CAM and special diets. Higher parental education was associated with higher CAM use (p = 0.042). The age of the individual with ASD (p = 0.009), severity of ASD (p = 0.037), and co-occurring neurodevelopmental/neuropsychiatric disorders (p = 0.029) also influenced the use of CAMs and/or special diets. Around half of parents were not/were partially informed by their providers about the treatments they recommended.

Conclusion: This study showed a high prevalence of use of CAM (somewhat lower of special diets) coupled with insufficient familiarity with the attributes of these treatments. Found to affect the use of CAM and/or special diets were the level of parental education, the age of the affected individual, severity of ASD, and the presence of co-occurring neurodevelopmental/neuropsychiatric disorders.

Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder; Complementary and Alternative Medicine; Europe; diet; middle-income country; supplements.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. First author is employed by the pharmaceutical company Alkaloid AD-Skopje, that was not related in any way to this research or the manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Parents’ received information and familiarity with the attributes of the recommended CAM treatments.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Parents’ received information and familiarity with the attributes of the recommended special diet.
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