Many treatments are being offered for autism which fall outside the guidelines of mainstream care for autism. Many of these treatments are controversial, partly because of their unscientific claims. For example, CEASE therapy claims it can cure autism by dealing with its supposed cause of vaccines. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport commissioned the Netherlands Autism Register (NAR) to survey the use of alternative treatments.
The researchers wanted to investigate how many people were using these treatments. To do this, a questionnaire was sent out to about two thousand people registered with the NAR. These were autistic adults and parents and guardians of people with autism. Furthermore, the researchers collaborated with a treatment center specialising in autism to gather insights from more than four thousand anonymous patient files. Both studies revealed that 23 to 30.7 percent of autistic people use alternative treatments. In children, the percentage is as high as 46.4.
In most cases, alternative treatments are done in combination with mainstream treatments. Patients who received homeopathic treatment were more often attending special education and had highly educated parents from Western backgrounds. Researcher Kim Jonkman argues that a person with autism is more likely to turn to alternative treatments if they have more additional needs, e.g. a second diagnosis, and have already followed an intensive course in mainstream care: "Parents then think there is no harm in trying an alternative treatment. But it can be mentally harmful for the autistic person."
The researchers argue that parents, practitioners and autistic people should be better advised and warned about the benefits and risks of these treatments. In addition, regular care needs to be improved according to Jonkman: "People feel ignored in regular care. You have to see different doctors all the time and there are waiting lists everywhere. In contrast, alternative treatments offer one person who says they can deal with everything. The alternative practitioner can also give much more time and attention than a GP."
