Clinical Discovery in Advances in the Treatment for Autism

Medicine and the neurosciences have come a long way in further understanding Autism Spectrum Disorders from the days when Autism Spectrum Disorders was viewed as a form of childhood schizophrenia, or mistakenly seen as due to inadequate parenting. Neuroimaging studies have enabled physicians to better understand a neurologic basis for the symptoms of Autism.

Such was the case 12 years ago at the Drake Institute of Behavioral Medicine in southern California in the treatment for Autism.
 
It was fortuitous that one day when a family brought their 6 year old son , diagnosed with Autism, to the Drake Institute to seek help through their treatment program using neurofeedback (EEG biofeedback). The Drake Institute. had not been treating children with Autism. In interveiwing the parents of this Autistic boy, it was learned that the child also suffered from all of the combined symptoms of ADHD in addition to his core symptoms of Autism. Since the Drake Institue at that time  had no experience in treating Autism Spectrum Disorder patients, the Drake Institute recommended only treatment for the ADHD symptoms to see if the child would respond favorably to at least an improvement in the ADHD symptoms. Only 20 neurofeedback treatments were recommended to start , rather than the usual 40.
;The Institute did not know yet if the ADHD or ADD symtoms in an Autistic child would improve as significantly to neurofeedback as they do in ADHD or ADD  children, much less the Autism symptoms improving.  Remarkably after 20 treatments, the boy was communicating in 7-word sentences with improvement in his core symptoms of Autism as well as ADHD symptoms.  

 
The child's QEEG brainmap is compared to the reference normative database for their age to determine which specific areas of the brain  are deregulating. These brain  regions that are deregulating are suboptimally functioning with a resultant  loss or decrease in function in that region.  Both the specific frequency of the abnormal brainwaves and the location of the abnormal brainwaves are necessary for developing the most effective neurofeedback protocols to improve brain functioning.
 
The specific brain regions underfunctioning determines the symptoms. If the right posterior region is underfunctioning, then one can expect deficits in understanding social cues and how one's behavior or verbal communication affects others. Left regions of the brain underfunctioning can result in diminishment of expressive and/or receptive language.

With brainmap guided neurofeedback at the Drake Institue,  Autism Spectrum Disorder patients have improved their ability to respond to nonverbal cues and improved expressive language,  increased give and take during conversations, fewer tantrums or meltdowns, improved understanding of social nuances and ability to tolerate sensory input that was uncomfortable previously. Less dramatic improvement was seen in the area of stereotyped interests.

Fate has dealt Autism Spectrum Disorder children a more difficult hand.