Diagnosing Autism – Tests and Challenges

The earlier you diagnose, the faster you can start the specific line of treatment – is a universal thought process adhered to by the medical faculty around the globe. For an ailment like autism spectrum disorders [ASD], coming to a confirmatory diagnosis poses lot many problems and challenges that it at times becomes too difficult to diagnose it in time. Here, we will discuss the various aspects of diagnosing an autism spectrum disorders.

The first challenge that we face in doing so is the lack of any kind of medical test to confirm the autistic disorder. You just can’t pull blood from all children at birth and test them genetically. The diagnosis is predominantly based on the observations about the development and behavioral traits of a child, thus it becomes impossible to detect such ailment before the child attains a specific age that is more than 18 years. The reason being there has been a lot of physiological variation that one can expect in the usual or normal development of a child. Developmental delay has been a common occurrence, and is not known to cause any major obstacle in the overall growth of the child – mentally, physically or otherwise. Thus, just because a child does not start communicating till 1 year of age, may not be autism in making.

Yet another problem faced by the pediatricians is the lack of awareness in the parental community about autistic disorders – especially regarding the various forms of it. Autism is still considered an equivalent or just another form of mental retardation by most of the people. Thus if a child fails to communicate, or keep an eye contact, it will not be reported to the pediatrician immediately, thinking it just a part of slow speech development. When the child does not take interest in social interactions, it can be mis-understood as a moodiness or shyness, instead of looking at it as a possible autistic trait. Denial also plays a significant role, thus rejecting the possibility, even if the awareness about autistic traits is made.

To avoid this, every child should be screened for developmental delays and disabilities at regular intervals of 9 months, 18 months and 24-30 months of their age. Additional visits can be arranged if the child shows some traits other than the normal ones. The children who give a history of preterm birth, or low birth weight, or having a sibling with an ASD should be screened more thoroughly and frequently, including an educational session with the parents or guardians or care-takers to understand what to expect, and what not.

The child can be further directed to comprehensive diagnostic evaluation, if shows positive signs of any traits characterizing ASDs. It can be done by developmental pediatricians, child neurologists and finally child psychologists, for refined problem definition and management planning.

To conclude, I would repeat the motto – earlier we define the problem, healthier we can resolve it.

Autism cure with homeopathy

Introduced by Dr Leo Kanner of the John Hopkins, in 1943, autistic spectrum disorders include a group of disorders including autistic disorder, Asperger’s syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder, Rett syndrome and childhood disintegrative disorder. These disorders are characterized by varying degree of impairment in communication skills, social interactions, and restricted, repetitive or stereo-typed patterns of behavior. A lot of research is ongoing to find any kind of therapeutic measure for autism, but there has not been any significant option available. On the contrary, homeopathy does play effective therapeutic role in its treatment. Let me demonstrate this with a case example.

Nimish [name changed], a 8 yrs old boy diagnosed with mild autism with Asperger’s syndrome, presented with complaints of spells of hyperactivity and excitement, where he used to cry or laugh aloud on trivial stimulations. He had a habit of rocking himself constantly and aimlessly playing with his fingers [a common autistic feature]. He could follow complex commands easily and could convey his needs in short sentences; but he could not reproduce or rehearse a small story told just a few minutes back. His attention span was noted to be very less – except for the film songs. The psychometric assessment had also mentioned about a global developmental delay [by six months] with slow writing and ill-defined handwriting. His IQ was 60+. He could not button his shirt properly but could put on the socks easily. He was toilet-trained – but in spite of that used to get nocturnal enuresis once or twice a week.

On emotional plane, he showed a severe violent behavior when contradicted or teased by anybody. He used to throw whatever he could hold on to, and had even bitten one of his friends in such fit of anger. He showed strong fear of heights, and he liked rhythm a lot. He could dance all day on the film songs [as mentioned earlier, the attention span too was significantly better with respect to the songs].

Physically – nimish is ambithermal to hot, has aversion to sweets and sweats a bit more on scalp.

The case was referred to homeopathy by the treating pediatrician, with a doubt about the exact outcome especially with the pathology in mind. The prescribing totality was:

· Anger – violent

· Anger – contradiction intolerant of

· Anger – rage

· Music – sensitive to, rhythmic

· Music - ameliorates

· Fear of heights

· Concentration – difficult

· Involuntary movements

First prescription: [27 October 2009]:

Tarentula hisp 200 twice daily x 1 month

Follow ups:

Nimish visited his grandmother in Bangalore after the first visit, and due to some unavoidable circumstances had to stay there for next four months. His grandmother called in between reporting “slight improvement” and since no details were available from her, same medication regiment was continued for couple of months [Jan & Feb 2010].

19 March 2010:

Hyperactivity and violence has reduced a lot; Understanding has improved – could grasp the normal school he attended while at Bangalore; Now can button his shirt perfectly; Recollection of story and telling it later has improved – though makes some mistakes; Enuresis has stopped completely since Feb.

Rx: Tarentula H 200 BD x 1 month

08 June 2010: reported on phone from bangalore

Could not continue the medication for a couple of months. overall he has improved a lot. Even the neighbors can feel the difference. Recent psychometry showed his IQ in the range of 75-80.

Discussion:

There has been a lot of emphasis to understand various treatment options available in the complementary medicinal system, especially homeopathy for the autistic cases. This case clearly indicates how effectively homeopathy can deliver results in autism. I have also seen improvement in the eye-to-eye contact and social interaction in other cases, where it was the presenting complaint.

For the parents of autistic children, who are reading this article, please note that Tarentula was selected for Nimish as per the symptom similarity and thus may not help all autistic children. An individual assessment is necessary from a trained homeopath for a effective treatment.