What is the mechanism of acupuncture for autism?
It is well documented that acupuncture has intensive modulatory effects on the neural activities, partially through the “igniting effects”. The changes of the neurological activities in autism could be, at least in part, related to the inflammatory status of the brain. Many studies demonstrated that acupuncture can improve the inflammation and modulate the immune function (Huygen FJ. 2003). The recent studies showed that GABAergic inhibitory signals of brain are reduced in autistic individuals, which result in the loss of control of exciting signals and information processing, thereby inducing hypersensitivity, raised physiological stress and impulsive actions. Interestingly, acupuncture possesses GABAergic enhancing effects (Lee BH, 2008).
