Using Ease for Behavior & Flight/Fright

Here is a way to help a child with poor self-regulation (think of a wiggly, inattentive sensory child with or without autism or of a child who is alarmed by loud noise). The type of therapy I'm describing is a lite-version of sound therapy and can be done at home or at school over a period of several weeks. The product is called EASE and is modulated music on a CD (there are a variety of CDs). It is available to parents and therapists at Vision-Audio.com.

Protocol
As a protocol, the child listens to music 2x/day for 20-30 minutes, 5-7 days per week. Separate the 2 daily sessions by 3 hours or more. The volume should be set low - that is, no higher than what is needed for the child to comfortably hear the music.

Try not to use the disks too close to bedtime as the music may be alerting. Use each disk for about 2 weeks. You can rotate the disks in and out of a long-term schedule, or do a few weeks of music and then more later as needed.
 Always do a 5-minute test before starting a program. Have the child listen to music for 5 minutes, then wait 24 hours before doing any more. If there are any emotional outbursts, mood changes, or unusual behaviors during that time, do not continue therapy unless you are well-versed in sound therapy and know your way around this.  

Do not do sound therapy if the child has a history of seizures, depression, mania, bipolar disorder, or some type of psychosis – including hearing voices.

Purchasing Equipment

Purchase Ease 1 or 2 for starters and then if it appears to be working, purchase additional disks. Ease 3 is typically used for children with attachment issues. Ease 4 has especially good 3-D auditory enhancement properties. There are many disks available.

You will want to buy good headphones. Do not use Bose - they filter out the modulated music sounds. Two good choices are Sony 7506 (about $100) and the relatively childproof Sennheiser HD 500A (about $150). Both are available from on-line sources. Get a good CD Player with random-access play. I like the Sony's that are available for about $25. Putting the player in random-access mode will help keep the music from getting boring. Make sure that Mega Bass is OFF. It is harmful to ears.

By the way, Vision-Audio also has 3-D video games which can help with auditory and visual sensory integration.  There is also a very powerful iPod app available to therapists to use with clients.

Martha Herbert, M.D. and "The Autism Revolution"

Dr. Martha Herbert's new book, The Autism Revolution is a gift to those of us trying to understand what the mish-mash of research results in the area of autism really mean. She talks about autism as a whole-body disorder that includes the mind. It's "a collection of problems that can be addressed and many that can be solved."

Autism Genetics Vs Environment

Is autism genetic, environmental or both?

The evidence continues to provoke and confound. The consensus from a group of studies concluded in the past six months is "both". But it's not as simple as that. Let's break it apart.

There is the multiplex version of autism (parents have multiple children with autism) in which several genes  are affected. This is the inherited type of autism.

The simplex version (parents have a single child with autism) breaks down into three types (but stay tuned, this will explode into a multitude of types very soon). First there are some rare inheritable disorders such as Rhett's and Fragile-X. These make up 8% of the multiplex type. Next there is a genetic version which is typically caused by mutated genes from aging parents. This is not inherited, but is still genetic. This, too, accounts for only 8% of the simplex cases. What is left is a  whopping 80+% of cases are not related to genetics. We used to think that autism 90% was genetic. One researcher called this new finding, "humbling".

As we all learned in biology, the environment of the mother's womb is instrumental in a baby's development. Researchers are now looking at the second trimester of pregnancy as being the key time that disruptions in development may occur. And high on the list of what they are looking at is a disruption of RNA functionality. RNA decodes the DNA strands in the body. If RNA is not performing its jobs correctly, huge changes can occur in the development of the child.

And now we come back to the miracle "cures" achieved with food supplements, changes in diet, hyper-oxygenation, etc. Is there a problem in specific children with the specific RNA mechanisms that ultimately create the proteins needed for food digestion, toxin removal and oxygenation? What is it about these remedies that affects not just the gastric system (for example), but affects the child's ability to communicate and to interact socially?

We also come back to the question: "What is autism and what are it's causes?" Will we continue to define it as a collection of symptoms: lack of social interaction, delayed/disrupted communication skills, etc.? Or will we define it in medical terms by the mechanisms that cause it. Stay tuned!

NIMH. (2011, 6 28). Autism Spring. Retrieved 10 31, 2011, from National Institute of Mental Health: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2011/autism-spring.shtml

Lactase Enzyme Deficiency in Autism

A new study out of Harvard Medical School found that 58% of children with autism age 5 and younger are deficient in the lactase enzyme. Lactase is used to break down lactose in milk products.

The researchers found intestinal inflammation in 6% of the 199 patients. The report said, " Lactose inflammation or injury may contribute to abdominal discomfort, pain and observed aberrant behavior....most not identified by clinical history."

This number is higher (65%) in children over the age of 5. Boys are at 1.7 times greater risk than girls.

1.       Reference

          Kushak, R. I., Lauwers, G. Y., Winter, H. S., & Buie, T. M. (2011). Intestinal disaccharidase activity in patients with autism: Effect of age, gender and intestinal inflammation. Autism, 3: pp. 285-294.

Cocaine - Prenatal Exposure

A New York Times story, "'Crack Babies': An Epidemic That Didn't Happen" (January 27, 2009) gives good news on this topic. Children ages 4 - 13 who had prenatal exposure to cocaine have recovered from initial slow growth (both body and brain) and show no statistically significant difference in IQ. As a group, they are more likely to have decreased visual attention and executive function. They also have an increased frequency of defiant behavior and poor conduct. However, their symptoms are so subtle as to make it impossible to pick them out of a group of typical children. It appears that prenatal exposure to cocaine is similar in effect to that of tobacco, and thankfully, not at all similar to the effect of alcohol.

Winter Depression and Low Dose Melatonin

Over the Counter Treatment for Seasonal Affective Disorder

I published this on my Brain-TuneUps blog, and am duplicating it here.

The short story: Low daily doses of liquid melatonin taken every day for 4 weeks once SAD has set in, can lift the mood. A low dose of melatonin - .3 mg - can be obtained by using small amounts of liquid melatonin. The time of day it is taken is important. For most people it is in the afternoon. For some (30%) it should be taken in the morning. (Per research (2) cited below)

Melatonin is available over the counter, but one should consult a doctor regarding usage.

Long Story: I live in a gray winter climate. Last week, I felt SAD creep into my brain. I used Natrol melatonin 1 mg liquid purchased from my local health food store. The dropper that came with my bottle holds .25 mg. of melatonin. I put the drops into a glass of water and drank it slowly during two hours in the afternoon. I noticed a positive effect in 24 hours and continued to see improvements over the next few days. I feel 85% back to normal. Light therapy in the morning would probably take care of the remnants of grogginess. I plan to continue until the end of February when daylight returns here and I am more active outside.

A running theory of the cause of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) or winter depression, is that a person's circadian rhythms are out of sync. NIHM defines this: "A person's rhythms are synchronized when the interval between the time the pineal gland begins secreting melatonin and the middle of sleep is about 6 hours. (1)" There are a number of therapies aimed at correcting the problem including lights, exercise, anti-depressants and melatonin. (See the Wikipedia entry.)

The synchronization can be off in two ways: - a longer-than or a shorter-than 6 hour interval. A study by Lewy, et al (2), showed that subjects who took low dosages of melatonin every day for 4 weeks found an improvement in mood. The dosage was as follows: for those who's interval is less than 6 hours, .3 mg in the afternoon. For those with a longer than 6 hour interval, .3 mg in the morning. If you have to guess which you are, the odds from the study favor the short interval (71% to 29%). The study gave 2 small doses adding up to .3 mg in 2 hours.

Melatonin is available over the counter, but generally in high dose formulations. The study used capsule formulation. There are liquid forms of melatonin available in some health food stores. (Again, I found Natrol 1 mg, and adjusted the amount.)

Both articles cited are available on line.


References
1. April 2006 article from the National Institute of Mental Health, "Properly Timed Light, Melatonin Lift Winter Depression by Syncing Rhythms".

2. Lewy AJ, Lefler BJ, Emens JS, Bauer VK. The circadian basis of winter depression. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Apr 28.