Electromagnetic Therapy for Autism Spectrum Disorder

NCT06085287 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 30

Last updated 2026-04-29

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The investigators hypothesize that electromagnetic therapy (EMT) could produce greater improvement on Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to the waitlist control. To test this hypothesis, a pilot randomized waitlist-controlled trial is designed to achieve the 2 aims:

1. To evaluate the efficacy of EMT in improving children with ASD as measured by Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) by comparing the change in CARS scores from baseline to week 12 between the two groups.
2. To assess the safety of EMT by comparing the number of participants with adverse events, number of participants withdrawn and reasons of withdrawal in treatment group with those in the control group.

A pilot randomized waitlist-controlled trial is designed. A total of 30 children aged 3-12 years with a principal diagnosis of ASD will be recruited. They will be randomly assigned to Care-As Usual (CAU) and CAU+EMT groups (n = 15 each group). Participants on the CAU+EMT group will receive a total of 30 sessions of EMT within 12 weeks (2 - 3 sessions/week).Those who are initially assigned to CAU group will receive EMT for 12 weeks after they complete the trial. The post-trial treatment will serve as a compensation for their participation.

Conditions

Interventions

DEVICE

Electromagnetic therapy

Electromagnetic therapy will be performed using an electromagnetic stimulator (Smart Cap). Chinese medicine practitioners who have at least 3 years of experience will conduct EMT after training. Each session of EMT will take 20-25 min, with 2-3 sessions per week, total of 30 sessions finished within 12 weeks.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • The University of Hong Kong

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Kwai Ching Lo, PHD · The University of Hong Kong

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
3 Years
Max Age
12 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2024-03-04
Primary Completion
2024-12-05
Completion
2024-12-05

Countries

  • Hong Kong

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT06085287 on ClinicalTrials.gov