**5.3.91 "Alternative" therapeutic approaches**

Since most clinical trials in ALS did not show a benefit for ALS patients, a number of "alternative" or off-label cures have been propagated. Besides severe ethical issues, these treatments are of experimental nature, but not in the sense of a registered trial.

Some ALS patients who are desperately looking for a relief, tend to participate in these treatments, although they have to pay large amounts of money by themselves, and no proven, or replicable outcome has been reported in a peer-reviewed journal.

To evaluate some of these treatments, the ALSUntangled group (www.alsuntangled.com), which is based on social networking of patients, clinicians, and scientists (Bedlack & Hardiman, 2009), reports sporadically on these treatments (see homepage for open and completed investigations).
