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Mar 13, 2009 12:00 PM | 17
You might be familiar with hyperbaric oxygen treatment, in which a patient breathes in extra oxygen while inside a pressurized chamber, as a therapy for the bends and carbon monoxide poisoning. But while a small segment of families with autistic children believe it helps their kids, insurance generally doesn’t pay for it, and many doctors are skeptical that it does any good.
New research in today's BMC Pediatrics may give the therapy more credibility as a treatment for autism. The randomized, double-blind controlled study of 62 children found that those who received 40 hours of treatment over a month were less irritable, more responsive when people spoke to them, made more eye contact and were more sociable than kids who didn’t receive it. They were also less sensitive to noise (some autistic children experience a kind of sensory overload from loud sounds and background noise). The most improvement was observed in kids older than five (the study included children ages two to seven) who had milder autism.
It's not clear why the treatment helped, says study co-author Dan Rossignol, a family physician at the International Child Development Resource Center in Melbourne, Fla., which treats children with developmental disorders. But the pressure may reduce inflammation believed to restrict blood flow to regions of autistic children's brains that control speech, or improve its ability to absorb oxygen, he tells ScientificAmerican.com.
"We're not saying it’s a cure," Rossignol said, "but … if you can improve understanding so a kid doesn’t run in front of a car, or improve sleep, that would be a benefit."
While the study only treated and tracked the children for four weeks, kids who receive the same number of sessions outside of research settings often remain better for longer, Rossignol says. Others get better after 80 sessions, according to Robert Hendren, executive director of the University of California Davis M.I.N.D. Institute, a large autism research center. He adds that some parents also buy chambers (approved by the Food and Drug Administration) and give their children periodic "tune-ups" at home, though those treatments haven’t been studied.
While most children tolerate the treatment well, it can cause claustrophobia, bruising of the eardrums, sinus pain and, rarely, seizures, Rossignol says.
An estimated one in 150 children in the U.S. have autism in what some are calling an epidemic of the disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Hendren, who wasn’t involved in the study, says the research was "well done" but that the findings need to be confirmed by others before before hyperbaric oxygen therapy is recommended as an autism treatment. He adds that the results will likely be used by doctors and parents petitioning insurers to pay for the treatment, which costs around $120 to $150 per session and isn’t typically covered for autism. He speculates that 10 percent of autistic children are getting the therapy.
"It's going to cost a lot of money and yet if it works, it would be important to provide children with this kind of treatment," Hendren tells ScientificAmerican.com. "It may help reverse, theoretically, some of the process that’s causing the autism."
Autism awareness ribbon © iStockphoto/Valerie Loiseleux
Tags:
hyperbaric oxygen therapy,
autism spectrum disorder,
autism
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17 Comments
Add CommentAs a parent of a child with autism spectrum disorder, the study seems promising, but I would wait for further tests results and long term side effect results to be published before I went ahead and submitted my child to this procedure.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne can understand the hope for a 'miracle cure' for autism spectrum disorder and other syndromes that effect so many people and are so little understood by the scientific and medical communities, but it is because there is so little understanding that we must be cautious of new treatments and unfounded claims.
This particular treatment may seem promising in its early results but we should proceed with caution. One only has to look in the not too distant annals of medical history to see many treatments that looked promising at first only to turn out to have at best, no effect above a placebo on the syndrome / disease they were meant to treat, or at worst death of the patient. On the dark end of this spectrum we see the scam artists who prey on the families of autistic children, selling dubious 'cures' and 'treatments' for profit, always to the detriment of the patient.
I used to work in a Hyperbaric facility and we treated burn victims and diabetics with outstanding results. The power of 100% oxygen at depth could have a number of healing properties and getting 100% oxygen to these children as part of their therapy, I believe could have some remarkable results...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI also have a child with autism and based on my research of his particular issues, I am excited to be starting this therapy this month.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUnfortunately, I think the diagnosis of autism leads parents to a hopeless feeling that there is nothing they can do. In my opinion, Autism is just a word that is given to children who have a certain type of behaviors. Unless the parent seeks out biomedical treatment, the medical community does not actively pursue the reason these behaviors are occurring. In my son's case, I went to a neuro-developmental pediatrician. After MRI's, poop, urine and blood tests, the major finding is that my son suffers from inflammation and brain injury. When I started to research his elevated labs, namely Creatine-Kinase BB and Neuron Specific Enolase, I discovered that these can be elevated in hypoxic brain injury. Now, I am not a doctor, but if we are treating people with Carbon minoxide poisoning, drowning victims, etc in the hyperbaric oxygen chamber because of the lack of oxygen/blood flow to the brain doesn't it make sense that my son could be treated too. At this point, I am not concerned about curing his "Autism". I am concerned about treating his brain injury. To me, this is not a 'miracle' cure but rather a logical treatment corresponding directly to my son's issues.
I feel if the medical community would do more research into what causes individual's behaviors (brain injury, allergies, etc), these so called 'miracle cures' or 'snake oil' may actually begin to receive some support. They obviously work for some children and more research needs to be done on WHY certain things work for certain children. I think we will find that Autism is a diagnosis but just a word to describe behaviors associated with a particular etiology.
I hope that as research on autistic behaviors continues, etiologies are discovered and cures are found.
I have a child with autism and we just finished his 1st 40 dives. We purchased a hard chamber. We had really amazing results with the 1st 4o dives and will be documenting it on www.hollandcenter.com. He's 8 years old. The gains we've seen have been surpassed all other treatments we've done (with exception to his seizure medication). It was definitely worth it for us. We start his next 40 dives soon.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have an mild autistic child aged 8.5 years going to a special needs school
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisany feedback on oxygen therapy will be highly appreciated.
My son will start his first treatment at the end of this month. I look forward to sharing our experience!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf that was true, then why the lack of confirming data? What is the mechanism by which HBOT can effectively treat autism? Why didn't Rossignol and his fellow DAN! practitioners publish in a credible journal?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am the mother of a 4 year old with autism and have purchased a home HBOT unit a year ago. We have completed about 250 dives. We are very pleased with the results. My son is now potty trained, verbal, conversational, and his bowel issues are much better. Of course it is impossible to say how he would have done without HBO, that's why I am really happy to see the first double-blind study and I hope this will trigger more research in that field. To answer the first comment, I agree that having more evidence would be good before starting any 'fringe' treatments, but my child is getting older every day and we won't be able to come back in time. That is why even if there is a small chance that the treatment could help, and if it is low risk, I am going for it. We saw major improvements with HBOT, but even if the improvements would have been more modest, it would still have been worth it. My son at 2 year old had no words, not even Mama, no pointing, no waving, no receptive skills, chronic diarrhea, screaming for hours, could not chew, was drooling constantly, had major sound and texture sensitivity, and was very aggressive. Life was a nightmare for him and us. Now he is in a typical preschool and is a sweetheart. He is in no way cured or recovered, he is still autistic, but he is so much healthier, happier, and so are we all in the family!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHBOT for brain-injured children is now covered by Medicaid in about 20 states due to legal action taken by aggressive parents of cerebral palsy children. Like autism, CP is an hypoxic-ischemic brain-injury. All of the FDA-approved uses for HBOT are for the treatment of hypoxic-ischemic tissue where hypoxic is lack of oxygen and ischemic is lack of circulation--which creates hypoxia. This means denying HBOT to treat hypoxic-ischemic tissue in autistic and cerebral palsy children is a direct violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Also, virtually 100% of everything prescribed for brain-injured children is not only off-label but so far off-label that nothing prescribed is FDA-approved for pediatric use--which means the standard of medical practice for cerebral palsy and autistic children is the prescribing of medications that are not FDA-approved for pediatric use. Therefore the off-label use of HBOT for CP/autism is actually just the standard of medical practice for these conditions; however, the hypocritical pediatric neurology community demands a higher level of "proof" of efficacy before insurance coverage is possible. The Rossignol study is far, far more of a proof of efficacy than the pediatric neurology community has ever produced for any of their drugs now prescribed to these children. See MedicaidforHBOT dot com for more information.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am a mother with a child who was diagnoised at 2 with asd also. I can't express how grateful I am that we started seeing Dr Rossignol and doing hbot, along with other biomedical treatment. My son is now 4 and is doing better than even I had hoped at this age. Hbot helped, within a month of renting we bought one, it was that big of an improvement. Nothing works for all children, but this is something I wish more people would look into. Life changing, so is Dr Rossignols office. They are a wonderful office of caring doctors and nurses who have all been directly affected by autism. Most of them having children with the disorder, if you don't have a good DAN doctor, check them out at icdrc.org.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thissincerely, Jill
Your article says: "He adds that some parents also buy chambers (approved by the Food and Drug Administration) and give their children periodic "tune-ups" at home, though those treatments havent been studied."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor the record, it is precisely the pressure used in these home chambers that Dr. Rossignol studies.
I have a 6 years child with some characteristics of autism, I heard that this HBOT affect the immunity , and my child take selenium and other antioxidant to increase his immunity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm affraid to go with this method .
If any follow this method I want to share information with him.
Thanks
I have a 6 years old child with some characteristics of autism. I heard that HBOT affect immunity and my child take selenium and other antioxidant to increase his immunity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm affraid to go with this method . I want to share information with some parents who follow HBOT for their child.
Thanks
I am a granddad of an autistic boy 4 years old. He and I just complete 3 dives over the Easter week-end (he did one other with his mom while I ran the chamber.)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1.5 ATA with O2 concentrator at nominal 95% O2.
Previously, he did a series of 10 dives per week for 3 weeks at a physician's facility with good results reported by his mother.
I honestly don't know if -- or how much -- it is helping him, but I do know that he WANTS TO GO INTO the chamber. We have to watch out or he will just climb in on his own.
He willingly tolerates and helps position his (badly fitting) O2 mask.
Although he has some language, both verbal and sign, he is not verbal enough to question him about this so we are only guessing that he somehow thinks or believes it is good for him.
He is quite content to spend an hour in the chamber with me -- considering the typical attention span of a 4 year old this is interesting in itself.
He chews gum to clear his ears -- I am a former commercial diver (by coincidence) and use the vasalva maneuver to clear my ears.
FYI: The only real disadvantages are 1) expensive chamber and 2) the time it takes for two adults, one inside and one outside.
As a diver myself, versed in compression and decompression, I find myself curious if MOST of the benefit could not be derived from merely using the O2 concentrator:
Used separately, 1.5 ATA will increase the O2 partial pressure by 50%, while 95% O2 will increase the O2 partial pressure by almost 5 times.
O2 partial pressure is normally the only value that matters....
i would like to ask how much is hbot machine? please reply. thanks.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiscan I ask if it gave good result to your child when the doctor prescribe selenium and other antioxidant to increase his immunity of your child? can you give me an idea please. thanks.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere are a lot of different treatments out there. I think this sounds like an interesting one, and always have, but the price puts it out of the range of the vast majority of people! $1,000 a treatment, not covered by insurance? For something that may or may not work? I'd love to try it myself, but who can afford that kind of money? I met someone who said it did wonders for her kid, but without having better insurance for autism, most of us will never know. It is a disgrace that our insurance system pays so little for autism treatments, even more proven ones. Parents are left to shoulder far too much of the burden. I was just reading this article about insurance coverage for autism the other night - http://www.aspergerssociety.org/articles/55.htm - and it seems that some countries have far better coverage for autism treatments that we do. Hopefully that will change.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this