About Autism, PDD, Asperger's Syndrome, etc.

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Thursday, July 24, 2008

Autism is a term used to describe a broad array of disorders which cause developmental delays resulting in impairments in communication, cognition, behavior, digestion, immune response and/or physical abilities. Recently, the term Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) has been adopted as the preferred label for these conditions, as it more accurately reflects the range of symptoms and impairment that these individuals struggle with. Within this spectrum falls a number of other labeled conditions, such as Asperger's Syndrome, Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), Angelman's Syndrome, and Fragile X Syndrome to name a few. Typically, these disorders are either present from birth, or the symptoms do not start until later (often in the 18 – 30 month time period). This latter form is often referred to as “regressive autism” or “late-onset autism”.

History
Autism is a phenomenon of the last 60-70 years. It was first described by Dr. Leo Kanner in 1943, after observing patterns of autistic behaviors in children that had never been documented before. The hallmark symptom of the children he observed, often referred to today as “splinter skills”, was his observation that these children maintained impairments in some functional areas while having extraordinary abilities in others. This strange juxtaposition of skillsets did not fit with the traditional views of mental retardation and/or emotional disturbance, and Kanner recognized this was a new type of disorder.

Statistics
Autism spectrum disorders used to be relatively rare, occurring in only 2 children for every 10,000* live births. However, in the early 1990’s, this rate began to quickly increase. Today, this figure is 67 per 10,000 (1 in 150) live births and there are indications it may still be climbing.

Causes
Research into the causes of autism has led primarily down 2 paths.

Traditional researchers have focused on genetics as the key cause of autism. As yet, there have been no specific genetic markers that indicate a specific gene defect being a factor.
Others reviewing epidemiological evidence suggest that the rapid growth in the incidence of autism suggests an external factor must be at play, such as environmental exposures, vaccinations, medicines, etc. This line of research focuses on the high volumes of heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium, antimony and tungsten found in the systems of children with an ASD.

Treatment
There are essentially two major avenues of treatment that have shown significant promise in recovering children with an ASD. Most recovered children (and there are thousands) use both of these methods:

Behavioral Interventions – There are a number of education programs that focus on teaching children with an ASD the skills necessary to interact with their peers and function day-to-day. The most studied and widely-recommended of these treatments is Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA). This method of teaching breaks down skills into their components and teaches each component explicitly to a child. These programs are based entirely on the deficits/needs of the child to focus on bridging gaps in areas such as expressive and receptive language, motor skills, and executive functioning to name just a few. Alternate labels/methods of ABA include Discrete Trial Training and Verbal Behavior (based on the work of B.F. Skinner). Other, less studied, behavioral interventions besides ABA include the TEACCH method and Floortime.
Bio-medical and Alternative Interventions - Over the past 20 years, a growing amount of research has been done regarding the bio-chemical processes within the systems of autistic individuals and their levels of dysfunction. This research has led to numerous advances in the nutritional and chemical needs of these individuals, leading to the development of numerous supplements (such as Super Nu-Thera, Methyl B-12 (methylcobalomin), DMG, TMG, etc.), and diets (such as Gluten-Free Casein Free (GFCF) and Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD)) which can often achieve remarkable results.

* Source for 2 in 10,000 figure: Only two autism prevalence studies were conducted in the US in the 1980’s: one showed a rate of 1 case per 10,000 children, and the other showed a rate of 3.3 per 10,000, (or 1 in 3,030). This typically has been averaged out to 2 per 10,000

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