By David Liu, PHDSunday Spet 9, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- A small trial in Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry suggests that takinga high dose of vitamin C supplements can help children with autism.  Michelle Cobb Dolske of University of Alabama at Birmingham in Birmingham, Alabama and colleagues tested vitamin C in children with autism and found supplementation of this vitamin at a dose of 8 grams of 70kg per day for 30 weeks reduced symptom severity.  The trial involved 18 residential school children who were randomly assigned to either vitamin c-vitamin-c-placebo treatment or vitamin c-placebo-vitamin c treatment.  Each treatment lasted 10 weeks and behaviors were assessed weekly using the Rita-Freeman scale.  The researchers found vitamin C treatment helped children with autism.  They concluded "these results were consistent with a hypothesized dopamigergic mechanism of action of ascorbic acid (vitamin C)."