Fig. 1From: Pharmacological and dietary-supplement treatments for autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review and network meta-analysisForest plots of network meta-analysis for the primary outcomes, i.e., social-communication difficulties (SCD), repetitive behaviors (RB), and overall core symptoms (OCS), in children/adolescents and adults. Placebo was used as reference. The squares and bars represent the effect-sizes (standardized mean differences-SMD) along with their 95% confidence intervals. The size of the square is proportional to the inverse standard error of the effect size. The color represents confidence in the estimates as evaluated with the CINeMA framework, i.e., blue = moderate, yellow = low, and red = very low. SMDs > 0 indicate more improvement with the medication in comparison with placebo, SMDs = 0 indicate no difference between medication and placebo, and SMDs < 0 indicate less improvement with the medication in comparison with placebo. SMDs could be interpreted as small (SMD =|0.2|), medium (SMD =|0.5|) and large (SMD =|0.8|), and these thresholds are presented with dashed lines. k = total number of studies for the intervention; n = total number of participants on the interventionBack to article page