From Secretin to HBOT to [insert name of next autism treatment here]
September 2, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
A couple of weeks ago a friend sent me an ad on Craigslist for an HBOT chamber. The price for this presumably used piece of equipment was steep and I wondered how the family felt about having bought it, and why they were selling it. Had the child “recovered”? Or had the promised effects not occurred?
An article in today’s OC Register notes that
n the past four years, hyperbaric oxygen therapy [HBOT]– in which patients breathe almost pure oxygen in a pressurized environment – has become a source of hope for thousands of parents looking for a way to treat their children’s autism. That new market has provided a jolt to an industry that had served mostly scuba divers, stroke victims and people recovering from wounds.
HBOT was not a treatment suggested for autistic children when my son was young. Secretin was and studies have not replicated the miraculous benefit that some claimed it would have. We actually bought some secretin but never gave it to Charlie and we’ve no plans of trying HBOT.
Though I think it’d be safe to predict that, with every year, some new treatment for autism will be found, proclaimed over, and then become yet another one for the history books.
Although not ever looking for a “cure”, we do give our son some supplements that we have found to be helpful as well as b-12 shots, which have brought about marked changes in him. I agree thought that these fly by night cure alls are often not a good thing by any means. I know of a lady whose family spent thousands for her to go with her son to Canada to HBOT for a month. THey actually had some pretty good effects from it, and he actually started potty training soon after the treatment. However, many of the improvements dissipated over the following months and unfortunately, she was unable to fund anymore trips let alone get one of their own. That too is where problems can come in, not being able to afford a treatment that might actually work!
Is a hyperbaric oxygen chamber really the kind of thing that people use in “do-it-yourself” alternative therapy in their homes? It sure seems like something that might require some expertise…
Maybe a consultant comes from time to time to help one operate it? (for a fee?)
As long as people are willing to pay for non-proven “treatments”, they’re going to become newly available. Fortunately it does seem that most of them go away after a while, but it’s too bad that so much money, time, and possible damage is done before they do.
Good point Eleanor- I think that I’d be pretty leery about trying to operate an oxygen chamber in my home. From my diving friends who have used them or trained with them I don’t think that they’re that simple to run.