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The study was performed at International Child Development Resource Center in Melbourne, Florida and published in BMC Pediatrics. Here's a layman summary. Here's the original research: http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2431-9-21.pdf The Dr. mentioned in this article who did the study is actually the DAN that treats my children and myself. He is phenomenal. I think it's worth clarifying though, that the 1.3 ATA pressure noted is mild HBOT (the soft bags) vs. deeper pressure you would get in the hard chambers that you must receive treatment on site in a clinic for. Has anyone done this? In my city there is a treatment center. They told me that it it needs to be done daily for 40 days for autism. The total cost is $5,000. there is a place in NC called Miracle Mountain that offers 40 sessions (i think) plus AIT for 2,500, plus free stay there. http://www.miraclemountain.org/Wow. That's extremely cheap for what they are offering. I have questions about the study: Do we know how the positive results were measured? Were symptoms recorded before and after treatment by an independant party ? Have there been other studies done on this or is this the first? I don't mean to be cynical but 80% with improvements is phenomenal and I don't want to get my hopes up prematurely. Hi there, I have done hyperbaric research at the lab where I work. It has benefits for things like wounds in diabetic people that will not heal. The theory behind it is that it provides oxygen independently of your red blood cells, by diffusion. The benefits are very specific to places in the body that lack oxygen such as wounds. There are definite RISKS TO THIS PROCEDURE INCLUDING ADVERSE EFFECTS ON THE BRAIN AND NERVES. Before you try this do a lot of careful research into the side effects. Frankly I can't see how it would help autism unless autism was caused by lack of oxygen to the brain, which I don't think anyone has demonstrated. If you have more questions please send me a private message. Like I say I have worked with this procedure in the lab. Kara -- It's good to be "cynical", although I would call it "healthy skepticism." I can't vouch for the quality of the research, but it's a big plus that it's "double blind" research, which means neither the test/treatment administrator nor the trial participant knows whether the participant is receiving the experimental treatment or a placebo. Ideally, I would have liked to have seen more than 62 children involved. Yes, it is the first research of its kind, which is why I posted it. I'm not promoting hyperbaric oxygen -- we haven't tried it and I know virtually nothing about it. Clinical outcomes were evaluated by three different scales: the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scale, the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC), and the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC). I'm not familiar with these scales. Here's another article on the research: http://sev.prnewswire.com/health-care-hospitals/20090325/LA8 855825032009-1.html
Is this part of the NIH study? The NIH sponsored a hard chamber study about 2 years ago. Many different hyperbaric chamber clinics all over participated. I think the results are finally coming out. My daughter was part of the study and she absolutely loved it. She did only 20 hours for the study where they studied "trends" and then we did another 20 hours to see if I could really tell a difference. I personally didn't see too much difference, but the psych who did before and after testing swore that dd had improved. I think that it was pretty subjective. I know that some people really did see improvement, I didn't; however, it wasn't harmful and my dd still begs to go back. aloha, Renee Nene -- I don't know if the NIH was involved. Maybe you participated in one of the studies that hasn't been published yet. You can see the list here: http://www.researchautism.net/interventionItem.ikml?ra=67&am p;infolevel=4&info=additionalresearch So far only four research papers on hyperbaric have been published, three of them by Rossignol (the guy behind the double-blind study), and another from Thailand. The organization Research Autism gathered the research, but hasn't yet reviewed it and given its opinion on the scientific quality of the research and the strength of the evidence.
I think that there are risks with absolutely any treatment, but serious side effects from HBOT are rare. About 2% of patients undergoing HBOT can suffer with temporary muffled hearing and blocked ears (like when flying) and some can have sinus pressure. 0.01 - 0.03% of people undergoing HBOT suffer with infrequent seizures. As you can see, this is very rare. I'm pleased that this clinical study has shown such improvements, it's great news. We are doing this therapy, and so far we have done 100hrs of HBOT and we are about to do more. Did I see improvments, yes of course but it took about 80hrs for changes to commence. He is doing so much better at school, language and understading have exploded. I have not seen any negative effects. This is not miracle treatmant, but it does help. It is very costly, we pay $130 per hr. Hi Tash,It's great that you are seeing real improvements in your son after HBOT. I agree that it can take time for improvements to be seen. Studies have shown that the effects are cumulative and that the more sessions a child has, the longer lasting the results. Yes, it is costly and it is a shame that many autistic children cannot get the cost reimbursed by insurance. Let's hope that more studies come out showing that HBOT is beneficial and is a recommended treatment for autism. My question is how can you do a double blind study with HBOT? Do you have some kids getting only air instead of O2 and how would that work? How could the person administering the therapy not know if HBOT was involved? There may be benefits just from sitting in a chamber, a placebo effect, which is fine, but what is the real story? It's very complex. Remember that many ASD kids improve at a lot of things just by themselves, as they grow. We have seen this with our ds. I think everyone who does any therapy should know as much as possible. Like I have said above in this thread, I have done HBOT research. We showed that it was beneficial for bacterial infection (I won't bore anyone with the details). Please look up the history of HBOT, it's very interesting. The guy I was working with was a Navy Seal. I hope HBOT works for autism, but as a scientist I am a skeptic by nature!In the latest study on 62 children, the children were randomly assigned to receiving hyperbaric oxygen therapy at 1.3 atm (atmosphere) and 24% oxygen for a total of 40 hours (the treatment group), or just receiving 21% oxygen in a slightly pressurized chamber, 1.03 atm (the control group). The children and parents did not know who was actually receiving HBOT and the children were treated at centers, so there was no visible difference between the treatment that the two groups received. Hi all, we havn´t done hbot with our son, but we are looking in to it. I have met several parents that have tried: one said it had no effect for them, one said it had some posetive effects but also told me about a boy that where doing the treatments with them that went from speaking in one-word sentences to seven word sentences during the month they did the treatment. I have met 3 parents that says it has made a huge huge posetive change in their children. But off course I am worried about side-effects - but it is hard to find any information about that. I asked specialist dr Philip James about it at a conference and he claimed that a bit of earpressure was the worst thing that could happen if you do it right. Jonsfca - please tell us more about the side-effects you know of! Hi There,The study described by ChunWong (thank you for the information!) is apparently not double-blind. The investigators who performed the procedure apparently knew which kids were treated. In a true double- blind study even the investigators don't know who is given the treatment and who is not, such as when everyone is given a pill and only some of the pills have the drug under investigation. Only after the study is over is the key revealed and who actually got the treatment is then known to the investigators. That's what double-blind means and it's the only way to truly assess if the treatment works. For the HBOT study described by ChunWong, it seems like the investigators might have known who was treated and so there is the problem that during the procedure the two groups are not exactly equal. The bias of the investigators comes to play. The HBOT I have used, and that used by the Navy Seals, is 100% oxygen, not 24%. Because ordinary air is about 20% oxygen, what those kids got is essentially hyperbaric air! I can't attest to the benefits of such a treatment, but it will certainly not drive more oxygen into the tissues in the same way as the procedure used by the Seals. The percent oxygen would be very close to that of the air we breathe all the time so other gasses like nitrogen will also be delivered and the result will be the same as just increasing the air pressure. The idea of HBOT is to force high concentrations of oxygen into the tissues without using the red blood cells and their hemoglobin. The pure oxygen introduced into the body through the lungs in HBOT diffuses into the tissues and raises the level of oxygen in all cells of the body. This oxygenates tissues such as those in diabetic wounds and other wounds that will not heal because the blood supply is cut off due to tissue destruction. Una/Johan, I would say that the HBOT described using just regular air like 24% oxygen, which is not really any different than ordinary air, would not have many side effects if any. Without 100% oxygen it is probably safe. It is most likely the high level of oxygen that causes side effects. The Navy Seal I worked with always mentioned the side effects when he gave a talk to our lab group. The most important side effect is seizures. Seizures don't occur for no reason. They are due to the effects on the brain and nerves caused by 100% oxygen. If not all of these treatments use 100% oxygen, then the number of seizures that happen overall will probably be very low. So, Una, I would ask the HBOT people, what are you giving my child? If they are not giving 100% oxygen (or a very high percentage) then what's the point? If you are just putting your son in a high pressure air chamber then go ahead, I doubt if it will do anything, frankly. If it is true HBOT, that stands for hyperbaric OXYGEN treatment, not hyperbaric air. In summary, I think if anyone is getting hyperbaric air they should not call it HBOT. HBOT is supposed to be pure oxygen. That's what we used in our experiments and that's what the Navy uses. That's what is in the scientific literature when HBOT is tested. Una/Johan, please send me a personal message if you want more information. The best of luck to you and your son! Jon in San FranciscoGreat, thank you for the information, that sure is something to consider! Here is a few links to get you started http://www.autismweb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15677 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=- 7231575039713819974&q=... http://www.autismweb.com/forum/viewtopic.php? t=14782&highlight=... http://www.autismweb.com/forum/viewtopic.php? t=13612&highlight=... http://www.recoveringmatthew.blogspot.com/ http://www.autismweb.com/forum/viewtopic.php? t=7979&highlight=c... http://www.autismweb.com/forum/viewtopic.php? t=7210&highlight=t... http://www.drneubrander.com/dev/index.html?nav=20 http://www.autismweb.com/forum/viewtopic.php? t=14620&highlight=... http://www.autismweb.com/forum/viewtopic.php? t=14464&highlight=... http://www.autismweb.com/forum/viewtopic.php? t=15383&highlight=... |
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