top
+
Home Tag: "autism" (Page 3)

Tag: autism

27Aug

Autism or ASD is it is more accurately referred to today, is a condition with no known cure. It is not normally a lethal, degenerative disease, and while it does have some physical symptoms, such as inflammation in the brain, the majority of the symptoms displayed by those with ASD is behavioral. They often do not interact with others in a normal, expected way, and socializing with people may sometimes present great challenges.

It’s because ASD covers such a wide spectrum of different behavioral symptoms that ASD wasn’t even recognized until the 1980s as its own unique condition. Before that, people with ASD were diagnosed as schizophrenic and treated in the same way as the mentally ill, with anti-psychotics and other treatments, since some ASD patients may, in fact, respond well to anti-psychotics, while for others it is not appropriate.

As ASD was first recognized, medical experts of the time used a simpler, more rigid and less accurate form of diagnosing ASD.

Classifying The Groups

Modern diagnosis now considers everyone to have ASD, with different, specific behaviors, symptoms, or syndromes measured for individual intensity on the spectrum. This is now the preferred way, since the individual symptoms matter far more than what “class” of ASD a person falls in, and a wrong categorization could lead to incorrect treatment, as medical staff tried to fit a “square peg into a round hole.” However, this newer form of diagnosis only came into effect in 2013. Before that, from the 1980s onwards, groupings were used.

In this older system of categorization, four basic groups of ASD patients existed, with symptoms being roughly divided from one group to the next, and severity being another qualifier for ranking which people fell into which groups. Adults diagnosed with ASD recognize many of these terms, as they were widely used in the media, and even portrayed in film, television and other forms of fiction.

Asperger’s Syndrome

This is the most famous and, in some ways, the “desirable” form of ASD. The name comes from the Austrian physician Hans Asperger, who first documented patients in 1944 with similar characteristics. Asperger’s was considered the “mildest” form of ASD and was often considered the “high-functioning” version of the disorder. In many cases, people who were classified as having Asperger’s didn’t even require any kind of medical treatment.

People with Asperger’s would be considered “eccentric” or “quirky” in terms of personality. The stereotype of someone with Asperger’s is the introverted genius, as ASD can often channel awareness into a focus on detail, and an ability to process specific, high volumes of information. Former  Asperger’s syndrome diagnosed patients would often be able to interact with people, though it would be with some difficulty and introversion. The “social awkward professor” would be another example of an Asperger’s stereotype that was frequently portrayed in the media.

Pervasive Developmental Disorder—Not Otherwise Specified

This next “stage” was often referred to as PDD-NOS, was considered to be more severe, than Asperger’s. In other words, this was a “step down,” and people classified in this group were generally considered to have similar symptoms to Asperger’s but often more severe, to the point where it could actively hamper or cripple social interaction. Of course, with a name like “PDD-Not Otherwise Specified,” there was a bit more to PDD-NOS than just a more severe form of Asperger’s.

PDD-NOS was one of the reasons why the classification system of the four groups was ultimately abandoned. So many of the symptoms displayed in ASD didn’t neatly fit any of the three remaining categories that PDD-NOS grew too large, unwieldy, and unrealistic as a place to categorize “everyone else.” When the miscellaneous group becomes larger than the other categories, this presents a serious challenge to the validity of the categorization system. Poor adaptive behavior, poor response to changes in routine, and difficulty learning language were just a few of the symptoms grouped to PDD-NOS

Autistic Disorder

As with Asperger’s, this category, also sometimes referred to as “classic autism” was one of the most widely known, and also portrayed frequently in the media. This is the type of ASD that most people imagine, thanks to films like Rain Man, with severe interactive issues, and an emphasis on routine and repetitive activities.

The Autistic Disorder category was considered severe enough that comprehensive intervention was often required here. Intensive treatment, therapy, and sometimes even medication is required at this level.

Childhood Disintegrative Disorder

This was considered the most severe form of the categories and was often characterized by regression. In this case, children seemed to be developing normally, learning to crawl, walk, and speak, and then, sometime between the ages of 2-4, the children would regress, and lose the skills they’d learned.

CCD, as it was known, was thought of as the “lowest functioning” form of autism. It could be so severe that even basic motor skills and coordination like hand-eye reflexes could be compromised, so children couldn’t eat properly or even tie their shoes. Depending on the severity of the symptoms, anti-psychotics, or anti-convulsants might be prescribed to help manage symptoms.

25Aug

Autism, today technically referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD is a condition that currently has no known cure. While it has some physical symptoms such as a higher occurrence of gastro-intestinal inflammation, ASD is most known for its wide range of different behavioral symptoms. It’s because of this range that, before the 1980s, people with ASD were often misdiagnosed as being schizophrenic, an error that is no longer made with today’s more nuanced understanding.

As the name implies, however, ASD’s different behavioral symptoms fall along a spectrum of different symptoms, with the symptoms themselves falling along a spectrum of intensity. Today’s diagnostic classification looks at the symptoms themselves, diagnosing whether the individual symptom is mild or severe.

In the past, however, the classification of mild to severe wasn’t applied to the individual symptoms but to the ASD patient. Different ASD intensities fell into different groupings, and one of them was known as “Atypical Autism.”

So what is it, and who would have been considered in this group?

According To The Book

An American medical document known as the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is considered the “guide book” of American medical professionals when it comes to evaluating mental disorders according to an agreed-upon national standard. The DSM, as it is more commonly known, has occupied this position in American mental health science since its first publication in 1952. Since that initial publication, the DSM has occasionally been updated to reflect the current understanding of mental health conditions.

It wasn’t until the 1980s, with the third edition of the book, known as DSM-III, that Autism was even recognized as a unique condition. Before this, it was misdiagnosed as just a specific version of schizophrenia. After the inclusion of Autism in DSM-III medical professionals followed the protocols laid out in DSM-III and categorized people with Autism into four different categories. Atypical Autism, as it was informally known, was one of them.

What Is Atypical Autism?

The formal DSM-III designation for Atypical Autism was Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Other Specified, or PDD-NOS. It was one of four categories, the others being Asperger’s as the “mildest” Autism condition, PDD-NOS as more severe, Classic Autism, and Childhood Disintegration Disorder as the most severe.

PDD-NOS was one of the factors in showing the inadequacy of trying to categorize Autism patients by going over a list of symptoms that belonged only in specific categories, rather than focusing on the symptoms themselves. PDD-NOS became the “miscellaneous” category, where any symptoms that didn’t neatly fit into the other categories would go.

The only thing people could agree on was that PDD-NOS wasn’t as “mild” as Asperger’s, and included symptoms like:

Atypical/Unusual Social Behavior

This was a fairly broad area, so while there were no clear-cut definitions of what it was, it was easy to categorize what it wasn’t, and that was average/normal social interactions with others. If a person experienced difficulty socializing, or others commented that the behavior was abnormal, it would fall under this classification.

Language/Communication Deficit

People with Atypical Autism or PDD-NOS are also often characterized by noticeable communication issues. This could manifest itself early on as delayed communication development, where an infant is speaking the way other babies are. Alternatively, later in life, it shows itself in unusual modes of speech. Some with this condition will speak in a flat, emotionless monotone, like a robot, for example, having never learned to change pitch to communicate feeling or intent.

Repetitive Motions/Behaviors

As with many types of autism, Atypical Autism was also characterized by a focus on repetition. An AA patient would find repeating certain words, actions, or rituals soothing, and repeat them over and over again. This was an immediate, short-term way to deal with stress and attempt to calm down in an upsetting situation.

Atypical Sensory Experience

A very unique symptom of PDD-NOS is a sensory experience that differs from that of others. People with this symptom can process sensory input in very different ways. Smells can be stronger and more overpowering, sounds can be overwhelming; there may be a greater sensitivity to temperature, or tactile sensations. Even patterns or colors may be too bright. In some cases, the sensory experience is because of deprivation, with the PDD-NOS patient unable to smell or taste.

As the incidences of PDD-NOS patients ramped up, and it seemed like there might be more that fell in this category than the others, it was eventually decided by DSM-IV, in 2013, to collapse the previous categories that had been established. Rather than try to pigeonhole patients into specific symptoms in specific groups, the categorizations were removed entirely, the Autism Spectrum Disorder condition and diagnosis was used instead.

This is a much more accurate form of diagnosis for better results in treatment, as it focuses on on the individual symptoms, and the severity of each symptom, rather than drawing arbitrary lines where one ASD patient, “mild,” while another isn’t.

20Aug

Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD, is a condition with varying degrees of severity. On the milder side of ASD, there may be no special medical treatment required at all, and a child diagnosed with it could grow up regarded by others simply as “quirky” or “eccentric” in terms of mannerisms and personality. On the severe side of ASD, a child may be hostile, unable to maintain eye contact, and with severe social impairment and an ability to even hold a conversation with other people, let alone interact with them in a normal way.

Because ASD is a condition and not a disease, there is no cure for it, the same as diabetes, or a heart condition. The many different symptoms of ASD can only be managed, and that is done through a variety of different techniques. Sometimes the best way to handle ASD is through behavioral therapy, where focused training allows a child to overcome certain behavioral challenges. Other times, medication, such as anti-psychotics, may need to be administered.

One recent innovation in medical science has been the use of stem cell therapy to help treat ASD symptoms. But it’s not something that families can go to just any hospital for. Depending on the country you live in, such as the United States, you may not be able to get stem cell therapy for ASD at all. But why? What is stem cell therapy, and why is it not more widespread?

Regenerative Healing

Under ordinary circumstances, very few cells in the human body are capable of reproducing in great numbers. The most obvious ones that do are for parts of the body that continue to grow throughout our lives, like skin, hair, and blood. If we lose any of these or suffer major cellular damage, they will grow back as new cells replace the lost ones.

However, for major organs, such as the heart, lungs, or brains, significant damage to these organs doesn’t mean new cells grow back. We can’t replace a lost lung, or kidney, for example, in the same way getting a cut will eventually heal on the skin. So if we sustain brain damage, new brain cells don’t grow to replace the lost ones.

Stem cell therapy, however, can change that. Stem cell as known as “master cells,” because these cells—which are present during the growth of a baby in a mother’s womb—are what allow a single fertilized egg cell to develop into a human. Stem cells can multiply at a rapid rate but, more importantly, can become any cell that is required, whether it is a blood cell or a lung cell. This is why stem cell therapy is already widely used as a viable treatment for some forms of cancer, such as leukemia.

The Treatment Debate

One of the great ironies of stem cell therapy for autism is that while the United States is one of the leading nations in medical technology, and it offers stem cell therapy, it does not offer it for ASD. Stem cell therapy in the United States is currently only approved by the Food & Drug Administration for leukemia treatment. While that does not make stem cell therapy for other conditions a criminal act, it does mean that doctors in the USA have no legal or financial protection or permission should they decide to administer stem cell therapy for other conditions.

However, stem cell therapy research for many different conditions, including ASD, are being conducted at American universities, as they are in other research facilities throughout the world. This means that some point stem cell therapy for other conditions may be formally recognized by the FDA. However, for the moment, this means any stem cell therapy that occurs in the United States beyond leukemia treatment is not FDA approved, and there is a nebulous state of legality. There are, however, other countries where stem cell therapy is offered for a variety of other conditions, including autism, where it is legalized.

Panama

For people that are looking at a Central America destination, Panama is one of the countries that have stem cell therapy clinics for people looking for treatment. Due to its proximity to the USA, it’s been a common choice for Americans looking for alternative ASD treatments.

Mexico

Even closer to home for a lot of Americans, Mexico is technically located in North America. While the medical standards in Mexico are not always comparable to those of the United States, equivalent facilities do exist here, and proximity, as well as currency differences, make it attractive to some.

Georgia

In Europe, many countries that have legalized medical procedures with technology and safety regulations equivalent to the USA. Georgia is one of the countries where stem cell therapy for ASD is offered, with several different options, including using cord blood or harvesting stem cells from bone marrow if no cord blood is available.

It’s always important to research your options and ask questions. Stem cell therapy is one alternative to treat ASD, but it is not the only one, and is not appropriate for everyone.

13Aug

Autism is today, more correctly referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD. The term ASD is a more accurate description of the condition, which is a variety of different symptoms—many behavioral—that express themselves along a spectrum of different degrees of severity. Because of this variety, it took centuries before medical science correctly began to perceive the subtleties of the condition. In fact, it wasn’t until the 1980s that autism was formally recognized. Before that, it was thought to be just a variation of schizophrenia and treated as a mental disorder.

Modern medical science now has the understanding that this is a neurophysiological disorder with a lot of nuance and variance. This is why similar to Lyme disease, ASD could, in the past be difficult to diagnose, as someone could have milder symptoms that rendered them “eccentric” to those around them, while those on the more severe end of the spectrum were alienated, uncommunicative, and could interact with others only with great difficulty.

Because this, finding treatments for the various symptoms of autism hasn’t been easy. It is not a contagious virus-like pneumonia, where a course of antibiotics will clear it. But now more understanding and advances have been made in assessing and treating autism. Umbilical cord blood and the stem cells it contains may be another piece of solving the ASD puzzle.

Stem Cell Therapy’s Potential

ASD is a condition, not a disease, and as such, it cannot be cured. The various symptoms, however, can be treated or managed. Sometimes this means specific behavioral therapy to teach children certain activities, such as learning to tie shoelaces or learning to wait until someone is finished speaking before replying. In other instances, it may mean the usage of medication. Anti-psychotics, for example, have been prescribed for effective results in some cases.

Now stem cell therapy is looking promising, though the full extent of its potential has yet to be fully understood since it is a recent development. While the specific applications with ASD still require further research, the actual techniques and results have already been medically evaluated in other areas. It’s a given that stem call can, and does work. It’s already been proven to do so and is used as an effective treatment in fighting certain types of cancer, like leukemia.

What Do Stem Cells Do?

Stem cells also have the nickname “master cells,” because they are like endlessly configurable “blank slates,” that can adapt themselves to whatever is needed. Unlike other cells, a stem cell can become any cell, even ones that normally don’t reproduce in great numbers.

A typical cell, such as a blood cell or a skin cell, can only reproduce into one thing, and that is a copy of itself. If you get a cut, or you get a burn, new skin cells are formed from existing skin cells. If in a cut, you bleed out a little, that blood loss is replaced by blood cells creating more copies of themselves. However, if you experience damage to your heart, for example, new heart cells can’t come from blood cells. And new liver cells can’t come from brain cells. Stem cells, however, can become any cell that is required to replace missing cells.

Under normal circumstances, small amounts of stem cells remain stored away in the body in hard to reach places. Bone marrow is one of the parts of the human body with a reserve of stem cells. Unfortunately, as you might imagine, retrieving stem cells from bone marrow, while possible, is a complex procedure, and it doesn’t yield huge amounts of stem cells.

Cord Blood Is The Answer

When a fetus is forming and growing in the womb, that is a process that makes extensive use of stem cells. This makes sense when you think about it, as babies grow from a basic collection of cells into more specialized groups that eventually form organs. As a result, the fluids that pass through the umbilical cord, or “cord blood” are saturated with useful stem cells. This is why it’s a good idea to request the collection and storage of cord blood once a baby is born, as this guarantees a supply of 100% compatible stem cells.

These stem cells, when applied as stem cell therapy, have yielding promising results in treating ASD. Depending on the type of ASD symptoms a child manifests, stem cell therapy may reduce inflammation that can be associated with autism, and, in some cases, has been seen to help manage certain ASD behaviors, such as reducing violence and hostility in some patients.

Of course, with such a new method of treatment, this means that research is still ongoing. The full effects and consequences of stem cell therapy for ASD treatment are not completely documented yet. What is known is that an important medically confirmed treatment for some forms of cancer now appears to be having good results with ASD as well.

7Aug

For centuries, Autism, more correctly referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD, was not well understood, or even perceived to be a unique, distinct condition. In fact, it was only as recently as the 1980s that ASD was finally classified as a unique disorder. Before that, people with ASD were categorized as being schizophrenic and treated as such. In the 21st century, fortunately, we now have a much better understanding of ASD, though that doesn’t necessarily mean the average parent knows exactly what ASD is.

As the name suggests, ASD presents a broad range of different symptoms that fall along a spectrum, ranging from mild expressions of a symptom to very severe, even crippling or debilitating. It is because there are so many possible symptoms of ASD that the disorder was hard to diagnose properly. Today, we understand that this is a neurophysiological disorder that may be passed on genetically from parents with ASD, to being contracted pre-natally, such as pregnant women becoming ill with rubella, an ASD forming within the child as a result.

But how do you identify ASD? When should you think about bringing your child in for an evaluation? Here’s a list of the possible symptoms you should keep an eye out for.

General Behavior

Because ASD encompasses a varied range of different neurodevelopmental disorders, this means that, on the surface level, parents should be able to spot certain general trends, and then start zeroing to see just how severe or specific those general trends are. This means parents should always start by taking note of general, unusual behavior.

The majority of ASD symptoms will be expressed as communication and behavioral issues. Sometimes parents may notice these symptoms right away, even in infancy. There is a precedent for this, as ASD children can be correctly assessed and diagnosed as early as 18 months—or 1.5 years—in some cases. The specific list of behaviors to watch for is as follows:

Eye Contact Issues

ASD diagnosed children can process sensory input differently from other children. In some cases, this can mean extreme sensitivity to actions that others find benign. Sustained eye contact, for example, can be too stimulating and in some cases even cause stress, so ASD children actively avoid it. If, after one year of age, you find your child is deliberately avoiding eye contact with you, especially if you are actively trying to maintain it, think about getting an ASD assessment.

Physical Contact Issues

In the same way that some sights can be overstimulating—and thus unpleasant—for some ASD children, in some cases, other ASD children will react similarly to touch and other tactile interactions. If you find that your child is purposefully, actively avoiding being touched, hugged, or any other forms of physical contact, even when expressing affection, this could also warrant ASD assessment.

Nonverbal Issues

For some children with ASD, traditional vocal communication can be extremely challenging, or even stressful. If you notice that your baby is still not yet verbalizing and attempting to speak when average babies are experimenting with vocalizing, monitor, and note down this behavior. This is another area where the range can vary, with some children being completely non-verbal while others appear normal at first, but then regress and lose their verbal ability.

Unorthodox Communication

There are other instances where an ASD diagnosed child is willing to communicate. However, the method of going about it can be unusual. Once again, this may due to differences in the way sensory input is processed or other causes. It can manifest in different ways, such as children speaking in a flat, emotionless, robotic tone devoid of inflection, or employing unusual rhythms or intonations.

Empathy Issues

When we talk about empathy, we refer to the skill that allows us to imagine what emotions another person must be experiencing, even if we aren’t going through the same experience ourselves. We see someone fall and get hurt, and can imagine their physical pain as well as emotional upset. People with ASD may not be able to read these cues and empathize. In some extreme cases, they may not even understand their own emotions when they experience them.

Repetition/Ritualistic Behavior

While many people have a habit or “tic” that they sometimes repeat, some ASD diagnosed children will form a heavy reliance on repetitive motions or behaviors. This can be a way to soothe anxiety or reduce other strong emotions. This can be as simple as a particular movement of the fingers, rocking the entire body back and forth, or a specific activity performed over and over again, such as washing hands.

Aggression

The last and probably most dreaded symptom of ASD is what appears to be unprovoked or easily triggered aggression. In some cases, ASD children can be provoked into a violent rage over incidents many wouldn’t find appropriate to this level of response. If you notice your child is getting violently angry over seemingly innocuous incidents, think about an ASD assessment.

6Jun

Autism or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be an extremely challenging medical condition for families to deal with. For many years, ASD wasn’t even properly diagnosed, and many people with this condition grew up and were misdiagnosed under a variety of different conditions, from psychological disorders, such as being psychotic, to physical medical conditions, such as being diagnosed as intellectually disabled, what was once formally known as “mental retardation.”

The reason for this is that ASD’s biggest challenge lies in the word “spectrum.” Not only is there a wide variety of different symptoms that fall under ASD, but the severity of those symptoms varies widely. So a person that might describe themselves as introverted might be diagnosed as having ASD, but a person prone to bouts of aggression, with no ability to sustain communication with others, and a requirement to be on a series of medications to remain placid may also be ASD.

The biggest challenge with ASD is that it is not precisely understood. While some conditions, such as the common cold, or certain types of cancer can point to bacterial transmission, or genetics as part of the framework for understanding how a disorder works, and where it comes from, ASD is not yet at that level. A lot of research is still being done to document and understand the underpinnings of ASD, but there are still many blank spaces in medical knowledge about this condition. This is one of the reasons why stem cell therapy for autism is still being looked into.

No Known Cure

One thing that can be definitively said about the current state of medicine and autism is that no known cure currently exists for ASD. Specific ASD symptoms can be managed or reduced, but there is no way to eliminate ASD in the same way that an antibiotic can clear up an infection, and allow a patient to return to a normal life, from an illness. To one degree or another, someone diagnosed with ASD is always going to have to cope with it in some way.

However, because ASD lies along a spectrum, with different symptoms and different levels of severity for those symptoms, different treatments will be suggested based on an individual diagnosis of what an ASD child needs. Some ASD children, for example, may be recommended to take certain types of occupational therapy, to learn everyday activities, such as tying shoes or eating with utensils. Others may be directed towards speech therapy to learn to verbalize normally and interact with others while maintaining eye contact.

For others, however, there may be an alternative suggestion, and that is stem cell therapy for autism.

What Are Stem Cells?

Stem cells are sometimes referred to by their nickname, “master cells,” because of the versatility that stem cells posses compared to other cells. In a mature adult, as one example, brain cells do not grow and replace themselves at the same rate as other parts of the body, such as skin. This is one of the reasons why people become more forgetful as they age, with neurons in the brain dying off at a higher rate once the aging process gets beyond a certain point. In most cases, such as healing skin, or growing new brain cells, the cells must come from the same source; the skin or the brain.

Stem cells, however, are like “master keys” that can open any lock. No matter where a stem cell goes, it is capable of converting itself over to whatever cells required, and encouraging the growth of new cells in that area. Stem cells are what make it possible for babies to develop in the uterus without specialized organs such as the heart or liver already being present to “instruct” cells on how to grow.

Treating Autism

Stem cell therapy for autism is the cultivation of stem cells and infusing them into an ASD child. Stem cells, however, are not as easy or as common to harvest as other cells, such as blood cells, for example, which are everywhere, and can be easily collected. In most people, the only place where stem cells exist in any appreciable number is within the bone marrow, so some techniques do exist for extracting stem cells from bone marrow, but this is not where the greatest number of stem cells reside.

In some cases, stem cells are harvested from other sources, such as the blood contained in the umbilical cord of a mother that has recently given birth. Cord blood, as it is sometimes called, is rich in stem cells and it’s common for many mothers today to be prudent about storing cord blood for future use. If you have your cord blood stored, it may be suitable for use stem cell therapy for autism. If you don’t, there may still be other alternatives open to you for using stem cells to treat autism.

As always, it is first important to have an ASD child fully diagnosed, and then discuss the situation with medical experts to see if stem cell therapy for autism is even recommended for a child.




up-arrow-1