Biomedical Intervention? | Autism PDD

I've been intensely researching biomedical intervention on the internet. I have found the following website that I think has finally helped me make up my mind on the matter:

http://www.quackwatch.com/search/webglimpse.cgi?ID=1&que ry=autism

The following excerpt from this website sums up a lot of what I have found on the web - particularly the last sentence:

Pseudoscientific treatments tend to be associated with exaggerated claims of effectiveness that are well outside the range of established procedures. They are often based on implausible theories that cannot be proven false. They tend to rely on anecdotal evidence and testimonials, rather than controlled studies, for support. When quantitative data are considered, they are considered selectively. That is, confirmatory results are highlighted, whereas unsupportive results are either dismissed or ignored. They tend to be promoted through proprietary publications or Internet Web sites rather than refereed scientific journals. Finally, pseudoscientific treatments are often associated with individuals or organizations with a direct and substantial financial stake in the treatments.

We do have the financial resources for biomedical interventions, but I just can't find anything credible to spend it on. My son is doing so very well with ABA and speech that I just don't want to waste any energy on dubious interventions.

That's wonderful. It's good when you find something that works your family. Really.

I'm a bit of live and let live kinda girl... whatever floats your boat... one man's trash is another's treasure...do what works for ya... never say never... blah blah blah blah.

Because when the "additional thing" is taken away, my son regresses right back to where he was. As soon as we add any of the additional things back in that have worked, viola - I have my son back.

Thank you for sharing this!! Printed out the study to read tonight. I did peak at the numbers however. It seems on average it's about 50/50 on whether certain treatments worked or did not work on a child. I always wonder how many people report it as 'no change' when they just didn't give it long enough to take effect. Or maybe for example, a family went gluten free - didn't see a change, but it's really because it was the shampoo they were using (just an example) or the cleaner in the house, or the kids they sat next to in the lunchroom bread?? Like I said, we have not seen much improvement from my DD with biomed, but I wouldn't be comfortable to say there's no change, cuz I know I have dug through my house like I should to identify ALL the possible triggers.

As for "there are interventions that have
proven effective time and time again when implemented correctly such as
ABA. I also think that it is helpful to have someone, such as the behavior
analyst, help collect data on the behaviors you hope to see improve or
change when doing other interventions so that you can objectively see if
there is a difference." I did all this for 6 months, spents thousands and thousands of dollars on behaviorist, therapist, nutritionist, psychologist, etc. All of which told me it would be years before my son would catch up and be able to function. Now, I no longer have to pay any of the above people AND I have my son. So although these intervetion have been proven, are they really necessary?? I say, you don't know unless you try. I am by no means judging anyone who doesn't try biomed. To me, it just makes sense to rule out as potential cause. And although biomed is expensive...the above was WAY more expensive and time consuming.

[QUOTE=JJ Dad]

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I am so happy for you, that you do have resources for your child, whatever they may be. I am glad your son is doing well with what you have chosen to do to help him. But subtly hinting that parents who put their energy into interventions that are different than yours are being 'dubious' is really rude and not encouraging at all. It is really insulting for 'studies' (UGH) to show that parents cannot even look at their child and see changes. That they must be wrong about what they see, even though the parents know the children better than anyone else does.

i just now noticed your post was a few years ago. Sorry everyone else has to hear how rude you are.

I wanted to revive this topic because there is finally a good link to respond.

The Autism Research Institute publishes a list of biomedical treatments, including the percentage of parents who report imporvement from using that specific treatment.

This is not as scientific as it could be, because parents are not completely objective, but it provides links to good research, and recommendatiaons about what is (and what is not) a long shot.

The link is http://www.autism.com/pdf/providers/adams_biomed_summary.pdf

I say, whatever works for your child is what you do. Biomed did incredible things for our children, but not all the same treatments worked on both children the same way. If you don't want to do biomed, don't. If you do, do. We can just respect each other because many parents have incredible success with them, and some don't.One issue I have with parent's reporting the effectiveness though is that
people tend to not report accurately. There are days where my daughter
does really well and it happens to be after we try something new and I
could report that she did well because of that but I honestly don't know.

I think every parent should do what they think is best for their child but a
lot of people have limited resources and there are interventions that have
proven effective time and time again when implemented correctly such as
ABA. I also think that it is helpful to have someone, such as the behavior
analyst, help collect data on the behaviors you hope to see improve or
change when doing other interventions so that you can objectively see if
there is a difference.

I have heard some parents report that certain things improved
dramatically the day after they did it with their child so to me that thing
probably did have an effect. I have had other parents report that
something changed within weeks after doing something but have had
other parents who aren't doing the other interventions experience the
same changes so how do we know it was the additional thing that caused
the change?

I definitely don't want to sound like I don't trust or believe what other
parent's report but my biggest concern is always that parents will choose
not to do the proven effective treatments in lieu of doing things that have
not been proven to have an effect. I also hope more individualized studies
can be done to start showing what is effective for certain types of
children. A lot of the times the studies are done with groups of children
who are all different so of course it is hard to see if there is an effect or
not!This is one reason we only change one thing at a time in our kids. For example, if we change a food, we don't change a therapy, an exercise, a medication, not even a vitamin. Nothing else changes. I also keep my mouth shut with everyone we know, including therapists, on any changes we make at home. I want 100% unbiased opinions. When people come up and say, "what is going on with him? How did he start XYZ all of the sudden", it gives me some feedback.
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