Abstract:Objective To investigate the distribution of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndromes in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and to provide a theoretical basis for the standardization of the diagnosis and treatment of ASD. Methods General information and the data obtained by the four TCM diagnostic methods were collected from 154 children with ASD in The Affiliated Hospital of Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine and Childrens Hospital Affiliated to Xi'an Jiaotong University, and multiple statistical methods including factor analysis and cluster analysis were used to determine the TCM syndrome types of ASD and investigate their distribution pattern. Results Among the TCM syndrome types of ASD, liver depression and spleen deficiency accounted for the highest proportion of 43.51%, followed by hyperactivity of heart-liver fire (20.13%), spleen-lung Qi deficiency (18.18%), deficiency of both heart and spleen (13.64%), insufficiency of kidney essence (2.60%), and spleen-kidney Yang deficiency (1.95%). Conclusion The clinical TCM syndrome types of ASD are mainly excess syndrome or intermingled deficiency and excess, and liver depression and spleen deficiency, hyperactivity of heart-liver fire, spleen-lung Qi deficiency, and deficiency of both heart and spleen are the four main syndrome types of ASD, while insufficiency of kidney essence and spleen-kidney Yang deficiency are not the dominant syndrome types in children with ASD.