Autism
| Autism
is a Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) and it is a severely disabling
condition that disrupts the lives of its sufferers and their families
and taxes the ability of Mental Health Professionals to understand, diagnose,
and successfully treat. Approximately 3.2 percent of all inpatients carry
this diagnosis. The general psychological consensus is that Autism stems
from structural or functional defects in the Brain and that this produces
the distinguishing differences that becomes noticeable either at birth
or as the child begins to develop. Autism can be identified by the following
problem producing behaviors, language deficits such as mutism, echolalia,
perseverative speech, social skills and relationship deficits in which
the child may appear not to recognize or relate to other people including
their own parents. He may communicate only on a need basis; self-stimulation
which may take the form of rocking, head banging, masturbation or other
repetitive behavior is common. In general severely Autistic children do
not engage in imaginative play. Autistic children exhibit a much narrower
range of affect than other children.
Our interest in this field was sparked by the presence of Autism in two of our grandchildren. An Autistic child places an inordinate amount of stress on reasonably intact parents with strong family system. For less stable family systems the results can be catastrophic. This situation led to an aggressive search for effective treatment on our part. In general treatment prognosis is poor with almost all methods of treatment. TREATMENT Medical treatment Haloperidol (an antipsychotic) Clonidine (an antihypertensive) and Clomipramine have all been used and have been successful in treating specific symptoms such as headbanging or aggressive behavior directed at others but have not impacted the overall syndrome. Behavioral Treatment has been most successful in institutional settings when used to eliminate self injury behavior and in the acquisition of social skills and the development of rudimentary language skills. Perhaps the most promising behavioral approach is to train parents to be therapists and to have them focus on reinforcing “normal” behaviors. Neurofeedback
one of the newest, most technological and more effective treatment approaches
which appears to address Autistic Brain dysfunctions directly. This
process is sometimes called Brain Wave Training. EEG Neurofeedback utilizes
two computers and sensors on the scalp and or forehead, and ear (s)
to pick up brainwaves through the skull and to feed that data back visually
and aurally so that it can be used to change brainwaves so that they
are task or state appropriate. We have had excellent results with persons
suffering from Autism with this approach.
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National Institute of Mental Health
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