Autistic Kids Can Be Helped by Hyperbaric Oxygen Chambers By Paul S Fitzgerald

You may be acquainted with hyperbaric oxygen treatment, in which a patient breathes in additional oxygen while within a pressurized chamber, as a care for the bends and carbon monoxide poisoning. But while a little segment of families with autistic kids believe it helps their kids, insurance often does not pay for it, and many doctors are doubtful that it does any good.

New research in today's BMC Pediatrics may give the care more credibility as care for autism.

The randomized, double-blind controlled study of 62 youngsters revealed that people who received forty hours of treatment over a month were less irritable, more responsive when folk spoke to them, made more eye contact and were more companionable than youngsters who failed to receive it. They were also less delicate to noise (some autistic youngsters experience a sort of sensory overload from loud sounds and background noise).

The most improvement was noted in children older than 5 (the study included youngsters ages 2 to 7) who had milder autism. It is not clear why the treatment helped, asserts study co-author Dan Rossignol, a family surgeon at the Global Kid Development Resource Center in Melbourne, Fla, which treats kids with developmental defects. But the pressure may ease inflammation assumed to prohibit blood flow to regions of autistic youngsters's brains that control speech, or improve its capability to absorb oxygen, he tells ScientificAmerican.com. "We're not claiming it's a cure," Rossignol asserted, "but if you can improve understanding so a kid does not run in front of a vehicle, or improve sleep, that is a benefit." While the study only treated and tracked the kids for a month, children who receive the same number of sessions outside of study settings regularly remain better for longer, Rossignol announces.

Others improve after eighty sessions, according to Robert Hendren, executive director of the College of California Davis M.I.N.D. Institute, a big autism research center. He adds that some fogeys also buy chambers (licensed by the Food and Drug Administration) and give their children continual "tune-ups" at home, though those treatments have not been studied. While most kids tolerate the treatment well, it could cause claustrophobia, bruising of the eardrums, sinus discomfort and, rarely, fits, Rossignol announces.

A computed one in 150 kids in the U.S. Have autism in what some are calling a pandemic of the disorder, according to the Centers for Illness Control and Prevention (CDC). Hendren, who wasn't involved in the study, claims the study was "well done" but the findings have to be confirmed by others before before hyperbaric oxygen treatment is counseled as an autism treatment. He adds the results will probably be utilised by doctors and folks petitioning insurers to pay for the treatment, which costs roughly $120 to $150 per session and isn't generally covered for autism. He speculates that ten percent of autistic kids are getting the treatment.

"It's going to cost plenty of cash and yet if it is working, it'd be vital to provide youngsters with this sort of treatment," says, Hendren.

"It may help reverse, in principle, some of the method that is causing the autism.".

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