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Autism is a developmental neurological disorder that is characterized by:
- Impaired social interaction
- Problems in verbal and non-verbal communication
- Display of repetitive behaviour and restricted interests
Autism along with four other Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) is included in a group of disorders termed as neurodevelopmental disorders.
Incidence:
- 1-2 in 1000 children suffer from autism
- It is 3-4 times more common in boys as compared to girls
Autistic children do not follow a typical pattern of normal development, some of the milestones are delayed or they develop very late. In some children, the problems are more noticeable when the child lacks behind other children of same age. Some children start-off very well, but between18-36 months of age, they suddenly stop talking, communicating, act strangely and reject people.
The exact cause of Autism has not been fully understood and there are numerous theories suggesting various causes. There are likely to be multiple causes that interact with each other in subtle and complex ways to result in Autism. Probable causes of Autism are:
- Genetic:
- Fragile X syndrome
- Tuberous sclerosis
- Monozygotic twins
- Prenatal (during pregnancy) causes:
- Rubella (measles) infection
- Toxoplasmosis
- Cytomegalovirus
- Untreated metabolic disorders
- Anticonvulsant medication
- Brain developmental abnormality
- Postnatal:
- Neurological disorder after birth
- Lead encephalopathy
- Bacterial meningitis
- Brain damage
- Mercury poisoning
As every individual possesses a unique personality and characteristics, in the same way an autistic individual expresses the signs and symptoms in his unique way. However, all autistic individuals have problems in three areas social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviour with restricted interests.
- Impaired social interaction:
- Lacking awareness of coming and going of others
- Unaware of feelings of others
- Expressions of emotions pleasure, crying, laughing are not obvious
- Attacking and injuring others without provocation
- Does not like to be cuddled or to cuddle others
- Difficulty in communicating with others and making friends
- Prefers to be alone
- Not responding to voice, behaves as if deaf
- Abnormal response to various senses hearing, sight, touch, smell, taste, reaction to pain
- Impaired communication:
- Delay or lack of development of speech
- If speech develops, it is abnormal
- Difficulty in verbal and nonverbal expressions
- Repeat words and sentences told to them (Echolalia)
- Little or no eye contact
- Poor or no facial expressions and gestures
- The IQ (intelligent quotient) is below average
- Repetitive behaviour and restricted interest:
- Confusion of words I and YOU
- Resistant to change, wants sameness like following same route to school
- Continuous unusual/odd play
- Repetitive body movements like flapping hands, rocking, banging the head or walking on toes
- Repetitive movements or plays spinning wheels, turning lights on and off
- Aggressive and self injurious behaviour
- Throwing or hitting tantrums
- Under-activity or hyperactivity
- Obsessive attachment to certain objects
- Their voice fails to reflect their feeling either it is high pitched, or they talk in singing tone or it is flat robot like voice
- No fear of real dangers
- Desire to keep things in a certain order
- Neurological functions:
- Seizures 20-35% of autistic children
- Mental retardation.
- The child has not babbled by the age of 1 year
- He does not make gestures or wave or point for things by age of 1 year
- He does not utter a single word by age of 16 months
- He cannot combine two words by age of 2 years
- He suddenly stops talking at any age
- He has no or poor eye contact
- He is too attached to some particular objects
- He frequently does not hear or react when spoken to
| Homoeopathic treatment | Top |
Homeopathy offers a strategically planned approach towards the treatment of developmental disorders that incorporates medicines in addition to Behavioural therapy, Communication therapy and diet modification. It must be remembered that all these go hand in hand in helping an autistic child. The Homeopathic approach to treating Autistic disorder is totalistic in nature i.e. all cases of Autism are treated based on individual presentation. The remedy thus selected is called Constitutional remedy and it helps in treating Autism with good results. With continued treatment over a period of time, there is a gradual improvement seen in the patients behaviour- the children show improved social interaction, their verbal and non-verbal communication also improves over a period of time and repetitive behaviour reduces slowly. Overall, good changes can be seen in children who are given proper treatment as compared to those who are not given any therapy. Homeopathy is definitely suggested for the treatment of Autistic disorder.
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