Clinical Trials Show Promise for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation As a Treatment for Autism
Wednesday April 9, 2008
Don Farral - Getty Images
Just this week, Dr. Casanova completed clinical trials which suggest that he was quite right:
Members of the UofL research team placed a coil on the scalps of 10 people with autism to create a low-frequency magnetic field, which they then pulsed by reversing the field’s polarity. After receiving a 20-minute treatment twice a week for five weeks, patients showed fewer symptoms of hyperactivity, sensory overload and repetitive behaviors, said psychologist Lonnie Sears, a project collaborator.Of particular interest to people on the autism spectrum is this important note:The team assessed symptoms before and after the treatment by measuring patients’ brain activity and their scores on standard neurological and psychological tests.
“Our results are preliminary, but they show a great deal of promise in reducing the severity of symptoms that people with autism find most distressing and, as a result, helping them communicate and relate better — something that most of us take for granted,” Casanova said.
The team also found that the treatment did not seem to affect areas of “giftedness” in the test group.“This is important,” Casanova said, “because, despite communication and social problems, some people with autism are very gifted in specific areas of intelligence.”
Comments
The study looks great and TMS looks promising. The problem is the FDA has been dragging its feet about the use of TMS as a treatment for depression. All of the studies on TMS have shown it is an effective treatment for depression the only drawback is at high doses TMS can cause seizers. That is where the FDA is dragging their feet. The newest studies do not use that high of a dose but the FDA is still hesitant. The funny thing is Electric shock therapy which is FDA approved and very much in use is a treatment that specifically causes seizers to treat the depression. I hope the FDA does not drag its feet on TMS and ASD but I am pretty sure they will.
I will be very interested to see these results when they appear in a peer-reviewed research journal. At this time, my read on the descritpion of what was done with the magnetic fields does not meet the minimal requirements of a sound scientific study. Were the evaluators “blind” to the participants’ status as “pre-treatment” or “post-treatment”? Was a control group used to count out other postential causes of a treatment effect? Was the treatment effect statistically significant? These are all major points that need to be discussed.
In addition, there needs to be research to find out what, if any, side effects might occur as a result of this potential treatment. For all we know, this could cause brain cancer or severe seizures.
Just playing the role of the tentative scientist…