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A Randomised-Controlled Trial of Vitamin D and Omega-3 Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in the Treatment of Core Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children

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Abstract

We evaluated the efficacy of vitamin D (VID), omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3 LCPUFA, OM), or both (VIDOM) on core symptoms of ASD. New Zealand children with ASD (n = 73; aged 2.5–8.0 years) received daily 2000 IU vitamin D3, 722 mg docosahexaenoic acid, both, or placebo. Outcome measures were Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) and Sensory Processing Measure (SPM). Of 42 outcome measures comparisons (interventions vs. placebo), two showed greater improvements (P = 0.03, OM and VIDOM for SRS-social awareness) and four showed trends for greater improvements (P < 0.1, VIDOM for SRS-social communicative functioning, OM for SRS-total, VIDOM for SPM-taste/smell and OM for SPM-balance/motion). Omega-3 LCPUFA with and without vitamin D may improve some core symptoms of ASD but no definitive conclusions can be made.

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Funding

Partial funding for the study was provided by Massey University Strategic Innovation Fund, Massey University, New Zealand. Additional support was provided by Douglas Nutrition, Pty. Ltd., NZ who were supplying the active supplement and identical-appearing placebo, but who had no input into study design, implementation, data management, statistical analysis or reporting of results.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Health, Massey University, Auckland, 0745, New Zealand

    Hajar Mazahery, Cathryn A. Conlon, Kathryn L. Beck, Owen Mugridge, Marlena C. Kruger & Pamela R. von Hurst

  2. Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation, Food and Nutrition Flagship, Adeliade, Australia

    Welma Stonehouse

  3. Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

    Carlos A. Camargo Jr.

  4. School of Medicine, Lipid Research Centre, Illawarra Health & Medical Research Institute, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia

    Barbara J. Meyer

  5. University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Bobby Tsang & Beatrix Jones

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  1. Hajar Mazahery
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  2. Cathryn A. Conlon
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  3. Kathryn L. Beck
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Contributions

PRvH: conceived and designed the study, acquired funding and ethics approval, and supervised the study; HM and OM: coordinated recruitment, participant management, and data collection; HM: conducted the data-analysis with supervision from BJ; HM: prepared the manuscript; CC, KLB, and MK: supervised the trial; WS: advised on the omega-3 fatty acid section and statistical analysis; CACJr: advised on the vitamin D section; BM: advised on the RBC fatty acids laboratory protocol; BT: advised on the autism section. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pamela R. von Hurst.

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Mazahery, H., Conlon, C.A., Beck, K.L. et al. A Randomised-Controlled Trial of Vitamin D and Omega-3 Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in the Treatment of Core Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children. J Autism Dev Disord 49, 1778–1794 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3860-y

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