Year	Author	Study Subjects	Controls	Type of Intervention	Study Design	Outcome Measures	Results
2000	Bell et al .	Two people with autism, two people with Asperger's Syndrome	Two normal people	Measuring the fatty acid compositions of red blood cell polar lipids.	Controlled study	Measure of highly unsaturated fats in the polar lipids	The total saturates were highest in the autistic people, (51.2 and 50), lower in the Asperger's Syndrome people (41.0 and 39.1) and lowest in the controls (38.8 and 37.9). The total monoenes were highest in the autistic people (25.5 and 21.7), lower in the controls (21.4 and 20.1) and lowest in those with Asperger's Syndrome (19.0 and 17.9). The n-6 fats were highest in those with Asperger's Syndrome (26.8 and 28.4), lower in the controls (25.4 and 27.9) and lowest in those with autism (16.6 and 18.9).
2001	Vancassel et al	15 children with autism aged between 3 and 17.	18 mentally retarded children aged between 1 and 19 years.	Examined the phospholipid fatty acids in the blood plasma	Controlled study	Non-parametric Mann-Whitney test.	Marked reduction in the levels of 22:6n-3 (23%) in autistic subjects, resulting in significantly lower levels of total (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids in blood plasma (p=0.032).
2004	Bell et al	Children with regressive autism and Asperger's Syndrome	Yes	Parents completed a health questionnaire on their children which included a check list of clinical indicators of fatty acid metabolism which had previously been used on those with ADHD and dyslexia.	Controlled study	Levels of fatty acids in polar lipids.	Patients with regressive autism had significantly (p < 0.05) higher percentages of 18:0, 18:2n=6 and total saturates in their RBC membranes, whereas 18:1n-9 and 20:4n-6 values were significantly lower.
2006	Bu et al	Twenty children with early onset autism and twenty with developmental regression. Children aged 24 - 60 months.	Twenty children who were developing typically and twenty subjects with non-autistic developmental disabilities.	Measure the fatty acid levels in the blood	Controlled study	Measure the fatty acid levels in the blood.	There was an increase in the levels of eicosenoic acid (20:1n9) and erucic acid (22:1n9) in autistic subjects with developmental regression. There was an increase in 20:2n6 and a decrease in 16:1n7t in children with clinical regression as compared to those with early onset autism.
2005	Patrick and Salik	22 children aged 3 - 10 years.	No	90 day trial with a fish oil based supplement called ProEFA which is a combination of Omega 3 (DHA and EPA) from fish oil and Omega 6 (GLA) from borage oil. Total dosage was 247mg Omega 3, 40mg of Omega 6 and 27IU of vitamin E.	Open study	Forty nine items selected from the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills.	18 of 22 children with autism or Asperger Syndrome taking a supplement of EFAs displayed significant (p = 0.00) increases in language and learning skills.
2005	Richardson and Montgomery	117 children with developmental coordination disorder in mainstream school (78 male, 39 female) and aged 5-12.	Yes	Omega 3 and Omega 6 supplements for 3 months. EPA 558mg, DHA 174mg from fish oil. Omega 6 (GLA 60mg), vitamin E 15IU.	Randomised double blind controlled crossover trial	Teachers' measurement of reading, spelling and behaviour	Significant (p < 0.01) improvement in those with treatment in reading, spelling and behaviour.
2005	Rimland and Edelson	686 autistic children and adults	Autistic children using other interventions	Dosages of fatty acids were decided by the parents.	Survey	Parents' opinions.	2% of the children got worse on this diet, 42% found it had no effect and 55% improved.