Any thought on the new Therapy for autistic kids.

[Kidsmyworld]

Has anyone heard about MRT brain therapy and how effective it has been for Autistic kids in the USA?

The difference is Dr Frankenstein was creating life from the dead creating a son. Dr Murphy was experimenting on a living child.

I don't want my ASD DD CURED!

Help yes, cure no. She is who she is, and is a wonderful part of human life. The world would be vastly impoverished without people like her.

I'm certainly not going to zap her brain.
I have known people who felt electric shock treatment helped them - but I still wouldn't want it used on myself or anyone in my family.

We understand so little about how the brain works - that doing anything this invasive seems criminally stupid .
Admittedly there are lots of treatments we do use nowadays which will seem barbaric in the future.

And a lot of "alternative" therapies that might end up working - e.g. we don't fully understand how the balance of bacteria in the gut affects health or that we have little idea of just home hormones interact with body processes.

I feel so sad for Dr Murphy - for not being able to appreciate his son for who he is, rather than using him as an experiment.

Jason Yes, I know. That's kind of irrelevant here. It was simply a comment to illustrate how it's basically freaky and dreadful that a man can experiment on his child's brain and think that people will flock to him (and pay for them to do that to their child!). Clearly his judgement is not sound.

From the website:

This lack of synchrony or “coherence” creates an electrical imbalance, and function is ultimately impaired. MRT restores the imbalance in a phenomenon termed “neuromodulation”. The brain is essentially set back on tune, the way an orchestra begins to play in harmony.

Seriously?? There's no scientific agreement on what actually causes autism, but hey, he thinks he's found a cure? Bollocks IMO. Anyone saying a treatment "restores the imbalance" and "the brain is essentially set back on tune" is claiming to cure, not treat symptoms. Only I note he is careful not to say "cure" because many people will (rightfully) immediately tune out the moment that word is brought out, because it makes him look like a loon.

FFS, I just despair. Why do people have to prey on desperate parents in order to make money?

MNHQ - is THIS what the SNs boards are going to be now? People "popping" in to tell us of "miracle cures" for our children? Because this is absolutely not on. Bad enough we have people in RL emailing and FB'ing us all sorts of "cures" they've read about (just dealt with one this morning, in fact), but on the SN boards, I'd like to think is a safe haven from the charlatans and snake oil salesmen.

Sorry, but this kind of stuff just disgusts me.

Hi all
Just posting here because there are a few rumours being spread about me in this thread. I would not test out unfounded theories on my own son using electrodes and the courts have not proved otherwise.

However, i did do many many things to my fateful manservant Igor, I can report After shocking him for 30 to 40 minutes there was a massive improvement in his ability for his hair to stand on end, his filling also displayed signs of picking up Radio two.

Your analysis about helping but not looking for a cure makes sense to me.
I can remember at the beginning of this thread stating that research is needed.

What kind of research, though - and how would you get something like what you're describing past an ethics committee?

Sorry Op, I personally wouldn't try this on DS.

I don't have a personal experience but I know of someone who does and it was legal in the country they reside. They were telling me of how they have seen an improvement in their daughter's day to day life.

'You can choose whatever work for you without having to face backlash from people that disagree with your choice.'

You never said that you have chosen to undergo this 'therapy'? No-one can criticise your choice because you haven't stated it.

'neuromodulation'

FFS.

(and I was a management consultant once)

"I don't have a personal experience but I know of someone who does and it was legal in the country they reside. They were telling me of how they have seen an improvement in their daughter's day to day life."

The big ethical issues here are:
a) as you said it is not properly tested
b) she is making the choice for her daughter - maybe we all need to be taught basic ethics about the choices we make for our children.
c) does her daughter even want to be changed?

This is a very contentious area - you just have to read what some Asperger's adults say about the treatments which were used on them as children.

But also - if you post a thread on MN - it gets debated, you can't control the debate or make your own rules. If it offends people it may well be jumped all over. If you decide to post in the SN area; especially if it is both for a "miracle cure" and you have no direct experience of SN yourself - you will anger people. (Maybe even more so if it is your only post.)

A kind relative regularly posts articles to us that suggest autism is caused by being too close to a TV (even if it is off) or due to going on the tube, or from eating grains, or drinking cows milk, with the apparent treatment being to eliminate these such things from our lives to make our child 'well'.

I have an equally 'closed mind' to their suggestions.

This was what prompted this thread.....
Spoke with someone who made the choice to carry out this therapy.. I have never heard of it before.I was not judgmental because l have never walked in their shoes, so cant critic or applaud their choice. So started the thread to hear peoples opinion about the therapy, that is if they know about it at all.
Rather all l got was some people accusing me of selling some therapy,asking if l have any interest.Some being out rightly rude....
I guess what l was expecting was conversations without insult or name calling.

The title was irritating. 'the' new therapy? It read like a sales pitch.

It's not that new. The world is full of therapies for children with autism, many just developed. Parent's time is far too precious and full fighting for interventions that have a proven record for effectiveness at helping them to achieve their goals for their children. Very few after the first couple of months of grief have any kind of 'cure' as a part of that ambition, because very few parents see autism as a disease or an illness.

We are very much aware that it is a 'disadvantage', in a world that is intolerant and unwilling to make provision that will keep children with autism safe as adults, and that is terrifying. The only thing more terrifying to me, is to submit my child to experimental science with very little research and a advertising blurb that seems more about catching all parents with worries than any detailed plausible info.

I fully understand your point of view without any kind of prejudice and I also understand my friends choice without any kind of prejudice as well...

So I'm still confused. Your purpose in posting here was what.. to inform us of this treatment? Based on a random discussion with a "friend" that has had this treatment, even though you have what, no knowledge/experience of SNs at all yourself?

I'm afraid I feel there is more to this than meets the eye.

You can go on believing this conspiracy about more to this than meet the eye.

I am also wondering about your statement "and how effective it is for autistic kids" and where precisely you've gotten this information. It is clearly not a wide spread "treatment" and from what I can see, it's certainly not mainstream treatment. So a questionable alternative treatment, that hasn't even had reliable studies done? So exactly how effective is it for autistic kids and how can it even be claimed to be effective? Effective for what? What specific symptoms does it treat? What specific effects does it have? Are you aware that different children present differently, and therefore there isn't a type of treatment that works across the board for all children with autism? How can you take seriously anything that claims to "reset" a child with autism's brain, when there is no solid proof exactly what causes autism to begin with - certainly nothing scientific to imply that rebooting a child's brain will cure their autism.

I will freely admit that I am highly suspicious of someone who claims to have heard of this randomly from a "friend" and is willing to recommend it to virtual strangers based on this, having done no research into the procedure or results. Especially someone that has no other posts under their name. Why NC? Or if a new poster, did you join just to share your "knowledge" with us? Then I'm afraid that will only increase my suspicions.

I've reported this thread, as I have some concerns about it.

Oh, did you get the impression that I was implying that there was a conspiracy to this?

How horribly clumsy of me. I apologise for that misunderstanding. I was actually simply thinking you were being dishonest. Next time perhaps a more direct approach will get the message across.

Perhaps you could direct your friend to this thread and she could explain more? Presumably having taken such a decision she has an awful lot detailed information that she can share and actually present for discussion?