Personalized naturopathic intervention in autism spectrum disorder with obsessive comorbidity: a case study from the perspective of complexity theory and qEEG analysis

This case report describes an 8-year-old boy with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and obsessive comorbidity who underwent a four-month personalized naturopathic intervention. The intervention simultaneously targeted multiple pathophysiological axes, including hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis regulation, sleep disturbances, cerebral blood perfusion, neuroinflammation, cognition, and mental and emotional regulation.

Clinical outcomes were qualitatively assessed through reports of changes observed in both home and school environments, encompassing executive functioning, emotional regulation, sensory processing, social competencies, language and communication, academic performance, and adaptive autonomy. In parallel, quantitative comparisons of pre- and post-intervention quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) recordings revealed mild but coherent neurophysiological changes, including the emergence of a distinct alpha peak, a shift in the origin of excessive high-beta activity toward Brodmann area 23 (BA23), and a reduction in interhemispheric amplitude asymmetries.

The findings are interpreted from the perspective of complexity theory and illustrate a dissociation between marked clinical improvements and partial persistence of surface electrical biomarkers. This dissociation may reflect non-linear neurobiological reorganization processes, whereby transitions between functional attractor states allow new behavioral properties to emerge prior to full normalization of electrophysiological parameters.

This case provides preliminary evidence that personalized naturopathic praxiology may contribute to the modulation of complex neurobiological systems in ASD. The magnitude, simultaneity, and coherence of the observed clinical and neurophysiological changes over a four-month period are unlikely to be attributable solely to spontaneous maturation at this developmental stage, supporting the hypothesis of an intervention-induced functional reorganization.