We all know that autism has no cure. There's no magic pill that reduces or reverses it's symptoms. No one can guarantee a time bound treatment plan. What comes to your mind when you think of Autism treatment? The available options are to teach the child skills needed to communicate and interact with the world through therapiws, that can bring about changes in symptoms. Many of the kids need therapy for a major part of their lives.  Autism mostly exists along with other psychiatric conditions like OCD, ADHD,ODD etc. Hence parents' need to tackle autism as well as other disorders that coexist with autism. Therefore parents should take help of medicines if they cannot bring the desired changes through therapies alone.. These medicines help children to be calm and help parents and trainers to focus on teaching them behavioural skills ,social interaction mechanisms and help them overcome their autistic characteristics. Infact there are proven medicines for ADHD, OCD, irritability,depression that provides immediate benefits with negligible side effects. (As a parent, discuss with your physisican, the possible side effects before your child starts medicines).  Medicines will help the child to take full benefits of various therapies .                                                         

Effectiveness of Medicines

ADHD is present in many kids with autism. Methyl phenidate   (Brand name: Ritalin or Addwize) is a widely used medicine with high success rate in combating ADHD. It helps child to gain attention thereby greatly improving his academics and learning skills. Common side effect is low appetite. However the appetite returns to normal once the child is off the medication. If we weigh the benefits vs side effects, the benefits outweigh the sideeffects and child will gain in all areas of development . There are parents who don't give medicines to their child as they carry the fear that english medicines for ADHD, OCD can severely affect the child. Some parents may believe that conditions like ADHD  will improve as the child gets older or can be fully cured by the therapy. Long term studies of methylphenidate has proven that its a very safe drug and has been used for decades. Its' painful to see children exhibiting aggressive behaviour or  displaying uncontrollable hyperactivity when it could have been possibly controlled by medicine.

Don't fear medicines...

The fear of english medicines due to the ignorance and limited knowledge lead people to alternative medicines.This is more so in Asian countries and my first hand experience in my country, India shows that percentage of parents choosing alternative medicines for their kids to treat ADHD, Autism is dangerously high. Many of the parents choose Homeopathy. Homeopathy is preferred because its considered free of side effects , which i also agree  because homeoepathy is nothing but placebo.  

I'm posting the extract and download link of a large study done by National health and Medical Research Council of Australian Government. NHMRC clearly states that homeopathy is nothing but placebo.