Background Parents’ use of complementary health approaches (CHA) for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are common despite the uncertain evidence of its benefit. Parents often adopt CHA due to dissatisfaction with conventional treatment. This study aimed to examine parents’ satisfaction with ASD treatment and their perception of progress in their child’s development. Parents’ use of CHA among children with ASD and the factors related were also evaluated. Methods Self-administered questionnaires were completed by 48 parents of children with ASD at a single tertiary referral hospital in Malaysia. Correlation analysis was used to explore associations between parental satisfaction scores, perception of progress scores and use of CHA. Results Use of CHA was reported by parents for 35.4% of children with ASD in the sample. Parents who were less satisfied with conventional treatment and parents who perceived poorer progress in their child’s development were more likely to use CHA. Strong positive relationship was found between parent satisfaction with ASD treatment scores and parent perception of progress scores, which indicates that parents who were satisfied with treatment were more likely to perceive greater progress in their child’s development. Improvement in child’s progress was most appreciated by parents in their child’s behavior (85.5%), social skills (83.3%) and motor skills (77.1%). Conclusion The use of CHA was common among children with ASD. Parents were more likely to practice CHA when they were less satisfied with conventional treatment and perceived poorer progress. A larger multicenter study is required to further explore the practice of CHA among children with ASD throughout Malaysia.

Aim Psychotropic medication prescribing among children with developmental–behavioural and mental health problems appears to be rising globally. We aim to examine the effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic and rapid introduction of telehealth consultations on the prescribing trends and medication change in a large paediatric public hospital developmental–behavioural outpatient service. Methods Data for developmental–behavioural outpatient encounters from 23 March 2019 to 22 March 2021 were extracted from the electronic medical record; representing the 12 months following the conversion to telehealth consultations during the onset of COVID‐19 pandemic and the 12 months prior to this change. Excel and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences were used to calculate percentages and logistic regression to compare psychotropic prescribing trends during both periods. Results During the pandemic, there were a total of 3201 encounters (92.0% telehealth), compared with 2759 encounters (1.6% telehealth) during the previous year. Despite the higher number of encounters during the pandemic, the rates of encounters with psychotropic medication prescriptions reduced compared to the previous 12 months (19.8% vs. 29.3%). Prescriptions made during COVID‐19 were more likely to be provided at review visits, patients ≥12 years and during consultant led encounters. The reduction in prescriptions involved both new and follow‐up psychotropic medications. The majority of follow‐up medication dosages were left unchanged. Conclusions Psychotropic prescribing rates were lower during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Fewer new medications were commenced and most medication dosages were unchanged.