Autism
Approximately 1.8% of children in the US have a diagnosis of autism, a rate that has more than doubled over the past two decades. In 2021, the CDC reported that approximately 1 in 44 children in the U.S. are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Nearly 1 in 27 boys and 1 in 116 girls are diagnosed with autism. People of all races and socioeconomic groups are impacted by the disorder. Due to that increase, more and more parents have turned to alternative forms of treatments to counteract the underlying symptoms of autism.
Traditional medicines and treatments have often failed at producing desired results for many patients with autism and their families. However, studies have demonstrated hyperbaric therapy as an emerging treatment that parents and physicians are utilizing to help ameliorate the effects of ASD.
This non-invasive treatment is as simple as a one-hour daily session, where the parent and child enter a hyperbaric chamber and receive increased levels of oxygen. Hyperbaric therapy has been shown to decrease inflammation and improve cognitive functions, which have substantially helped thousands of ASD patients.
-It has been postulated that children with autism might benefit from HBOT owing to the potential increase in cerebral perfusion occurring during treatment. Inhalation of above-atmospheric oxygen might result in an elevation of arterial partial pressure of oxygen, leading to increased oxygen delivery to the brain.9 Hyperbaric oxygen therapy might also have anti-inflammatory properties due to the reduction of pro-inflammatory cytokines (tumour necrosis factor–α, interferon-γ, and interleukins 1 and 6).10 Furthermore, HBOT might improve mitochondrial dysfunction, as well as upregulate the production of antioxidant enzymes.
Several case series11–13 and open-label studies14–16 have evaluated the effect of HBOT in children with ASD. Of note, these studies have not included comparisons with control groups. A 2006 study11 reported a statistically significant improvement in the clinical symptoms of 6 autistic children between the ages of 2 and 7 after 40 1-hour sessions of HBOT (1.3 ATA and 28% to 30% oxygen), based on parent ratings. Another case series concluded that about three-quarters of 7 Thai children with autism between the ages of 5 and 9 showed improvements in all of 5 domains assessed (social development, fine motor and eye-hand coordination, language development, gross motor development, and self-help skills) following 10 sessions of HBOT (1.3 ATA and 100% oxygen).
While the above studies show support for the use of HBOT in children with autism, a growing amount of literature has suggested that there are insufficient data to support the use of HBOT as an effective mode of treatment. Lerman et al13 evaluated the efficacy of HBOT in the treatment of 3 children aged 6 to 7 diagnosed with autism who were also receiving intensive behavioural intervention. Following 40 1-hour sessions of HBOT (1.3 ATA with 88% [± 3 %] oxygen), only 1 child experienced improvement in task engagement and spontaneous communication, while 2 children experienced minimal change from baseline performance. Although all of the participants demonstrated a gradual decrease in problem behaviour, there was no demonstrable improvement noted for HBOT as compared with behaviour therapy. A similar lack of compelling evidence was also noted in an open-label study evaluating 16 children with ASD aged 3 to 10 throughout 40 HBOT sessions at 24% oxygen and 1.3 ATA.14 Quantity of adaptive behaviour, stereotypy, and aberrant behaviour were charted graphically from baseline through completion of HBOT for each participant. Based on visual inspection of the level, trend, and variability of graphed data, the researchers concluded that no marked improvement was demonstrated in any of the types of behaviour after treatment with HBOT.
Several studies have measured inflammation and oxidative stress changes before and after HBOT in children with autism. Rossignol et al15 evaluated 18 children 3 to 16 years of age with autism who underwent 45 minutes each of HBOT at either 1.5 ATA and 100% oxygen or at 1.3 ATA and 24% oxygen for a total of 40 sessions. Markers of oxidative stress, including plasma oxidized glutathione before and after treatment, did not change significantly in either group. Both groups demonstrated improvement trends in mean C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, especially children who had higher CRP levels at the onset of treatment. When results for all 18 children were pooled, a significant improvement in CRP levels was found (P = .021). Clinical outcome ratings by parents before and after treatment also showed statistically significant improvement. Bent et al16 studied cytokine level changes before and after 80 sessions of HBOT in 10 children aged 3 to 8. All children reportedly experienced improvements based on several parent-completed measures of behaviour. However, these children did not have abnormal cytokine levels at baseline, and no statistically significant changes were noted in any of the 29 measured cytokines over the course of the study.
Source: https://www.ihausa.org/autism.html
-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5471082/#:~:text=Another%20case%20series%20concluded%20that,skills)%20following%2010%20sessions%20of