Effects of vitamin D supplementation on core symptoms, serum serotonin, and interleukin-6 in children with autism spectrum disorders: A randomized clinical trial.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have lower serum vitamin D and higher serotonin and interleukin (IL)-6 levels compared with healthy children.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of vitamin D on core symptoms and serum levels of serotonin and IL-6 in these children.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 6 children taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as children, both men and women.

This parallel randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted with 43 children with ASD (7 girls and 36 boys; 8.91 ± 2.87 y of age).

Also, the severity of autism and the social and individual maturity of the children were measured by the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), the Autism Treatment Assessment Checklist (ATEC), and Aberrant Behavior Checklist-Community (ABC-C) questionnaires before and after intervention.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and parallel-group study.

The children were allocated by chance, so the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group and the comparison group should start out alike.

As a double-blind Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group a baseline to be compared against.

Groups ran in parallel: each of the children stayed in one arm throughout.

Serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin (OH)D, IL-6, and serotonin were measured at baseline and at the end of the trial.

Randomization and allocation to groups were done using computer-generated numbers.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Autism Spectrum Disorder, Dietary Supplements, Interleukin-6, Serotonin, Vitamin D and Vitamin D Deficiency.

The authors tagged it with the keywords 25(OH)D, Autism spectrum disorders and Autistic disorders.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 6 children.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 4 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2020 (Nutrition (Burbank, Los Angeles County, Calif.)), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.