The history of autism "cures" is a history of dashed hopes and frequent danger.
Claudia López Lloreda at The Transmitter:
The largest study to date of leucovorin’s effectiveness for treating autism traits has been retracted because of data inconsistencies and statistical issues, according to a notice posted last week by the European Journal of Pediatrics.Panda, P.K., Sharawat, I.K., Saha, S. et al. Retraction Note: Efficacy of oral folinic acid supplementation in children with autism spectrum disorder: a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Eur J Pediatr 185, 109 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-026-06769-x
The study included 77 autistic children and is one of only five randomized clinical trials that have tested leucovorin, also known as folinic acid, in autistic people.
“The retraction of this paper removes a significant portion of the already weak evidence supporting the value of folinic acid as a treatment for autism,” Thomas Challman, a pediatrician at Geisinger College of Health Sciences who specializes in neurodevelopmental conditions, wrote in an email to The Transmitter. “Until we have acceptable evidence of safety and effectiveness, folinic acid use as a treatment for autism is not appropriate outside of a well-designed clinical trial.”
This article has been retracted by the Editor. Following publication, a number of concerns were raised about the data reported in this study directly to the publisher and via PubPeer, in particular that there appear to be errors in the results reported in tables 2 and 3 and concerns with the statistical analyses performed. The authors provided a response to these concerns and identified a number of errors in the reported results. Post publication statistical review confirmed several of the concerns raised with the data and statistical analysis and was unable to replicate the results reported in the article from the dataset provided. The Editor therefore no longer has confidence in the validity of the results and conclusions reported in this article. The authors have been offered the opportunity to submit a revised version of their article to the journal addressing all the concerns raised, which would undergo full peer review.
