Autism Therapy: vitamin deficiency

This article describes a study showing that magnesium supplementation improved behavior in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The study focused on 75 children with ADHD (7-12 years old). All of these children had already been diagnosed with magnesium deficiency at the time of the study. For six months, 50 of these children were given magnesium at a dose of about 200 mg/day, and 25 of these children were not treated with magnesium. All children continued taking any medications that they had been taking before the study began. Clinicians observed the children before and after the six-month treatment period, and rated their behavior according to several different scales. On all of these scales, the children who had been treated with magnesium showed significant improvements in behavior. The behavior of those who were not given magnesium either worsened or stayed the same. Children who had been given magnesium also had higher levels of magnesium at the end of the study than those who did not receive the supplement.