Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC), and Children's Global Assessment Scale (CGAS) after anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in individuals with autism. Twenty patients with autism received 5 consecutive days of both sham and active tDCS stimulation (1 mA) in a randomized double-blind crossover trial over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (F3) for 20 minutes in different orders. Measures of CARS, ATEC, and CGAS were administered before treatment and at 7 days posttreatment. The result showed statistical decrease in CARS score (P < 0.001). ATEC total was decreased from 67.25 to 58 (P < 0.001). CGAS was increased at 7 days posttreatment (P = 0.042). Our study suggests that anodal tDCS over the F3 may be a useful clinical tool in autism.
Highlights
Autism is known as a neurodevelopmental disorder with prevalence of 62/10,000 in general population [1, 2]
The abnormal function of specific brain areas which participating in face processing and social cognition, have been consistently demonstrated to be hypoactivation in individual with autism spectrum disorder [6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]
No significant difference emerged between the participants assigned to each condition order in either Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) (P = 0.706), Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) language subscale (P = 0.052), ATEC social subscale (P = 0.637), ATEC sensory and cognitive awareness (P = 0.479), ATEC health and behavioral problem (P = 0.387), or total ATEC score (P = 0.622)
Summary
Autism is known as a neurodevelopmental disorder with prevalence of 62/10,000 in general population [1, 2]. The abnormal function of specific brain areas (e.g., amygdala and fusiform gyrus) which participating in face processing and social cognition, have been consistently demonstrated to be hypoactivation in individual with autism spectrum disorder [6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. The hypoactivation of these specific brain areas, found especially at left hemisphere called rightward lateralization, were commonly evidence in individual with autism [14,15,16,17]. Consistent with this hypothesis, many of the genes associated with autism are involved in various aspects of synaptic development and plasticity [23]
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