Abstract
Aim: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder affecting multiple levels of social and cognitive skills and causing a significant health-care burden. Currently, there is no approved treatment for ASD. Methods: In this study, 10 children with ASD between the ages 6 and 19 years (M = 12.3, standard deviation = 3.94) were recruited. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) was applied and symptom severity was measured before and after treatment using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) and Autistic Behavior Checklist (ABC). All children received sessions of low-frequency rTMS to the bilateral prefrontal cortices. Results: The results showed that the children improved according to both symptom ratings. Specifically, both the relating (z = −2.02, P < 0.05), body and object use (z = −2.03, P < 0.05) and language (z = −2.21, P < 0.05) subscale scores and the total score of ABC (z = −2.37, P < 0.05) decreased. Regarding CARS, visual response (z = −2.06, P < 0.05), verbal communication (z = −2.12, P < 0.05) subscale scores, and the total score (z = −2.52, P = 0.01) decreased significantly after TMS therapy. Conclusion: Our study was open label and in terms of sample size should be considered a pilot study. Although the results should be evaluated cautiously, the findings suggest that rTMS might be a safe and useful tool for improving deficits related to ASD in children.
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