Objective To observe the effect of acupuncture therapy based on "gut-brain axis" on clinical manifestations and gastrointestinal symptoms of children with autism spectrum disorder（ASD）. Methods A total of 66children with ASD were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group

33 cases in each group. The control group was treated by routine rehabilitation training. On the basis of the control group

the observation group was treated with acupuncture based on "gut-brain axis"

and the acupoints were Touwei（ST 8）

Shenting（GV 24）

Sishencong（EX-HN 1）

Tianshu（ST 25）

Zhongwan（CV 12）

Zusanli（ST 36）

etc. Both treatments were given once every other day

3 times a week

4 weeks as a course of treatment

consecutively for 3 courses. The scores of autism behavior checklist（ABC）

TCM symptoms of gastrointestinal disease and childhood autism rating scale（CARS） were compared between the two groups before and after treatment

and the clinical efficacy was evaluated. Results After treatment

the scores of ABC

CARS and TCM symptoms of gastrointestinal disease in the two groups were lower than before treatment（P<0.05）

and those in the observation group were lower than the control group（P<0.05）. The total effective rate of the observation group was 90.9%（30/33）

which was higher than 81.8%（27/33） in the control group（P<0.05）. Conclusion On the basis of routine rehabilitation training

acupuncture therapy based on "gut-brain axis" is effective in treating ASD

which can relieve the clinical manifestations and gastrointestinal symptoms.