Treatment and Therapy
Note: CDC cannot answer
personal medical questions. Please talk to your health care
professional about specific questions concerning appropriate care,
treatment, or other medical advice.
Disclaimer
No two people with ASDs are exactly alike. So, each person with
an ASD needs a treatment program to meet his or her individual needs
and the needs of his or her family. While there is not yet a cure
for ASDs, early, intensive treatment can help children with the
disorder reach their full potential. Acting early can make a big
difference! For guidance on choosing a treatment program, visit the
Treatment
Options section of the National Institute of Mental Health’s
autism website.
It is important to remember that children with ASDs can get sick
or injured just like children without ASDs. Regular medical and
dental exams should be part of a child’s intervention plan. Often it
is hard to tell if a child’s behavior is related to the ASD or is
caused by a separate health condition. For instance, head banging
could be a symptom of the ASD, or it could be a sign that the child
is having headaches. In those cases, a thorough physical exam is
needed.
Even
if your child has not been diagnosed with an ASD, he or she may be
eligible for early intervention services. The
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) says that children under the age of 3 who are at
risk of having substantial developmental delays may be eligible for
services. These services are provided through an early intervention
system in your state. Through this system, you can ask for an
evaluation. To learn more about early intervention, click here
National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities.
Behavioral and Educational
Interventions
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, educational
interventions thought to help children with ASDs are those that
provide structure, direction, and organization for the child. These
interventions must be individualized to the child and take into
account his or her overall developmental status and specific
strengths and needs. To learn more about these treatments and
interventions, including specific strategies used by physicians to
treat ASDs, refer to the
American Academy of Pediatrics’ report on diagnosing and managing
ASDs.
The National Institute of Mental Health says that psychosocial
and behavioral interventions are key parts of comprehensive
treatment programs for children with autism. Some of the most common
interventions include:
- Applied behavior analysis (ABA)
- Discrete trial training (DTT)
- Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI)
- Incidental teaching
- Pivotal response training (PRT)
- Verbal behavior intervention (VBI)
- Developmental, individual differences, relationship-based
approach (DIR also called Floortime)
- Relationship development intervention (RDI)
- Treatment and education of autistic and communication-
related handicapped children (TEAACH)
Therapies often used with those listed previously:
- Occupational therapy
- Sensory integration therapy
- Speech therapy
- The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)
Go to
Autism Speaks, one of CDC’s partners, to read more about these
therapies.
For more information:
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Complementary and Alternative Medicine
There is no known cure for autism. To relieve the symptoms of
autism, some parents and providers may use treatments that are
outside of what is typically recommended by their pediatrician.
These types of treatments are known as complementary and alternative
treatments or CAM. They may include special diets, chelation (a
treatment to remove heavy metals like lead from the body),
biologicals (e.g., secretin), or body-based systems (like deep
pressure).[1]
NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
(NCCAM) defines CAM as a group of different medical and health care
systems, practices, and products that are not part of conventional
medicine.[2] NCCAM
divides complementary and alternative treatments into five
categories:
- Alternative medical systems (e.g., homeopathy or Chinese
medicine)
- Mind-body interventions (e.g., meditation, dance therapy,
auditory integration)
- Biologically based therapies (e.g., using herbs, foods, and
vitamins)
- Manipulative and body-based methods (e.g., deep pressure,
craniosacral therapy)
- Energy therapies (e.g., reiki, electromagnetic fields, etc.)
There have been efforts to develop a protocol for biomedical
interventions for ASD. There are anecdotal reports of success with
individual children; however, before this approach can be
recommended as a standard treatment, more research is needed on the
safety and effectiveness of the various treatments for a variety of
people with ASD.
To learn more about CAM therapies, go to the NCCAM
Get the Facts
webpage.
|
These types of treatments are very
controversial. Current research shows that as many as
one third of children with autism may have tried
complementary or alternative medicine treatments, and up
to 10% may be using a potentially dangerous treatment.[3]
Before starting such a treatment, check it out
carefully, and talk to your child’s health care
professional. |
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Dietary Changes
|
If you are thinking about changing your child’s
diet, talk to his or her health care professional first.
Or talk with a nutritionist to be sure your child is
getting the essential nutrients he or she needs. |
Many biomedical interventions call for changes in diet. Such
changes include removing certain types of foods from a child’s diet
and using vitamin or mineral supplements. Dietary treatments are
based on the idea that food allergies cause symptoms of autism or
that the lack of a specific vitamin or mineral may cause some
autistic symptoms. Some parents feel that changes in their child’s
diet may make a difference in how the child feels or acts.
The National Institute of Mental Health, part of NIH, does
studies to test how well various biomedical interventions work.
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Medications
No medication can cure ASDs or treat the core symptoms that make
up the disorder—that is, communication, social, and repetitive or
unusual behaviors. But medications can help with some of the
symptoms of autism in some people. For instance, medication might
help with a person’s high energy levels, inability to focus,
depression, or seizures. Also, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
has approved the use of risperidone (an antipsychotic drug) to
treat 5- to 16-year-old children with ASDs who have severe tantrums,
aggression, and self-injurious behavior.
Medications may not affect a person with an ASD in the same way
they would affect another person. So, it is important to work with a
health care professional who has experience treating people with
ASDs. Also, parents must watch their child’s progress and reactions
while he or she is taking a medication to be sure that the side
effects of the treatment do not outweigh the benefits.
Find out more about medications and ASDs on the
National
Institute of Mental Health autism website.
|
For information on choosing a treatment program, check out
the “Treatment Options” section of the
National Institute of Mental Health’s autism website. For
information on choosing a treatment program, check out the
“Treatment Options” section of the
National Institute of Mental Health’s autism website. |
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Additional Treatment Resources
The Autism
Treatment Network (ATN) seeks to create standards of medical
treatment that will be made broadly available to physicians,
researchers, parents, policy makers, and others who want to improve
the care of individuals with autism. ATN is also developing a shared
national medical database to record the results of treatments and
studies at any of their five established regional treatment centers.
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Disclaimer: We have provided a link to
these sites because they have information that may be of interest to you. CDC does not necessarily endorse the views or information presented on
these sites. Furthermore, CDC does not endorse any commercial products or information that may be presented or advertised on these sites.
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[1] Gupta, Vidya
Bhushan. Complementary and Alternative Medicine. New York
Medical College and Columbia University, 2004. Pediatric
Habilitation, volume 12.
[2] National
Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine
http://nccam.nih.gov/health/whatiscam/#1. Accessed
2006.
[3]
Levy, S. Journal of Developmental and
Behavioral Pediatrics, December 2003; vol 24: pp 418-423.
News release, Health Behavior News Service.
Date:
March 07, 2007
Content source: National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental
Disabilities
