Researchers looked at data from several studies involving 278 children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. They compared a treatment called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) against a sham treatment, which is a fake version of the procedure used as a control.
The results showed that children who received tDCS had better overall behavioral symptoms than those in the control group. Specifically, improvements were noted in social functions and communication skills. However, the study did not find a significant difference in behaviors related to restricted or repetitive patterns.
One finding was that these improvements were more noticeable in studies involving only children compared to groups that included adolescents. The treatment was generally well tolerated by the participants. Because this is a meta-analysis of several trials, it provides a broader look at how tDCS might work for certain symptoms, but individual results can vary.