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Archive for the ‘Autism’ Category

Depression is commonly known as a major depressive mental disorder. This has a recognized clinical condition characterized by an all-encompassing low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities.

Numerous treatments for depression are available. Standard depression treatment options include:

• Medications
• Psychotherapy
• Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

Emerging and less-studied treatments for depression include:

• Brain stimulation
• Complementary and alternative treatments

In some cases, your primary care doctor can treat your depression. In other cases, you may benefit from treatment with a qualified mental health provider, such as a psychiatrist, psychologist or social worker.

Try to be an active participant in your depression treatment. Working together, you and your doctor or therapist can decide which treatment options may be best for your situation, depending on your symptoms and their severity, your personal preferences, insurance coverage, affordability, treatment side effects and other factors. In some cases, though, depression is so severe that a doctor, loved one or guardian may need to guide your care until you’re well enough to participate in decision making.

Here’s a closer look at your depression treatment options.

Medications
Dozens of medications are available to treat depression. Most people find the best relief of depression symptoms by combining medications and psychotherapy. Some medications for depression are antidepressants that have been specifically approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat depression. Doctors also can use their medical judgment to prescribe other medications that haven’t been FDA approved to treat depression but that may be effective anyway — a common and perfectly legal practice called off-label use.

There are several different types of antidepressants. Antidepressants are generally categorized by how they affect the naturally occurring biochemicals in your brain to change your mood. To determine which antidepressant may be best for you, doctors typically follow general practice guidelines. They may also ask you to take a blood test called the cytochrome P450 test, which can help identify genetic factors that influence your response to certain antidepressants (as well as some other medications).

Other factors that are considered when choosing an antidepressant are your symptoms, your family history of depression, and other conditions you may have. Don’t give up until you find an antidepressant or medication that’s suitable for you — you have a good chance of finding one that works and that doesn’t have intolerable side effects, even if it takes a few tries.

Most antidepressants are equally effective. But some pose a higher risk of serious side effects. Here’s how antidepressants and other medications are generally considered when you’re starting treatment for depression:

• Typical first choices. Many doctors start treatment with antidepressants by prescribing an antidepressant known as an SSRI — a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. This is because the side effects of the medications in the SSRI class of antidepressants are generally more tolerable than are those of other types of antidepressants, and they also generally work well. SSRIs include fluoxetine (Prozac, Sarafem), paroxetine (Paxil), sertraline (Zoloft), citalopram (Celexa) and escitalopram (Lexapro).Other common first choices for antidepressants include serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitors (NDRIs), combined reuptake inhibitors and receptor blockers, and tetracyclic antidepressants.
• Typical second choices. The class of antidepressants called tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) has been around longer than has the SSRI class, and TCAs are still effective. But because TCAs tend to have more numerous and more severe side effects, they’re often not prescribed until you’ve tried SSRIs first without an improvement in your depression.
• Typical last choices. The class of antidepressants called monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) is often prescribed as a last resort, when other medications haven’t worked. That’s because MAOIs, while generally effective, can have serious harmful side effects. They also require strict dietary restrictions because of rare but potentially fatal interactions with certain foods. Newer versions of MAOIs that you stick on your skin as a skin patch rather than swallowing may have fewer side effects.
• Other medication strategies. Your doctor may also suggest other medications to treat your depression. These may include stimulants, mood-stabilizing medications, anti-anxiety medications or antipsychotic medications. In some cases, your doctor may recommend combining two or more antidepressants or other medications for better effect, which is sometimes called augmentation.

Side effects of antidepressants
All antidepressants can cause unwanted side effects. Not everyone experiences the same number or intensity of side effects, though. You may find that your side effects are so mild that you don’t need to stop taking the antidepressant. Coping strategies also can help you manage side effects. In addition, side effects often go away or lessen within several weeks of starting an antidepressant.

If you experience unpleasant or intolerable side effects, don’t just stop taking an antidepressant without consulting your doctor first. Some antidepressants can cause withdrawal-like symptoms unless you slowly taper off your dose.

Precautions when taking antidepressants
Although studies have shown that antidepressants are generally safe, some precautions are in order when taking them. The FDA now requires that all antidepressant medications carry black box warnings. These are the strictest warnings that the FDA can issue for prescription medications.

The antidepressant warnings note that in some cases, children, adolescents and young adults ages 18 to 24 may have an increase in suicidal thoughts or behavior when taking antidepressants, especially in the first few weeks after starting an antidepressant or when the dose is changed. Because of this risk, people in these age groups must be closely monitored by loved ones, caregivers and health care providers while taking antidepressants.

Some antidepressants have the potential of causing serious or even life-threatening health problems, such as liver failure or a dangerous drop in white cell count. While such cases are rare, it’s important to get blood work or other tests on schedule and stick to your treatment regimen. Make sure you understand the risks of the medications you’re taking and that you’re being properly monitored.

In addition, if you’re pregnant or breast-feeding, some antidepressants may pose an increased health risk to your unborn child or nursing child. Talk to your doctor about any concerns you have. Again, make sure you understand the risks of the various antidepressants. Working together, you and your doctor can explore options to get your depression symptoms under control.

Waiting for antidepressants to work
It can take as long as eight to 12 weeks to gain the full benefits of an antidepressant, although you may notice some improvements in your mood before that. Certain genetic factors may influence whether or not an antidepressant works for you and how long it takes for symptoms to improve. (DHF review) If you haven’t had improvements in your mood and thoughts, your doctor may suggest either increasing your dose, combining medications or switching to a new medication.

Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is another key depression treatment. It’s often used along with medication treatment. Psychotherapy is a general term for a way of treating depression by talking about your condition and related issues with a mental health provider. Psychotherapy is also known as therapy, talk therapy, counseling or psychosocial therapy.

Through these talk sessions, you learn about the causes of depression so that you can better understand it. You also learn how to identify and make changes in unhealthy behavior or thoughts, explore relationships and experiences, find better ways to cope and solve problems, and set realistic goals for your life. Psychotherapy can help you regain a sense of happiness and control in your life and help alleviate depression symptoms, such as hopelessness and anger. It also may help you adjust to a crisis or other current difficulty.

There are several types of psychotherapy that are effective for depression. Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most commonly used talk therapies for depression. This type of therapy helps you identify pessimistic, negative beliefs and behaviors and replace them with healthy, positive ones. It’s based on the idea that your own thoughts — not other people or situations — determine how you behave. Even if an unwanted situation doesn’t change, you can change the way you think and behave in a positive way. Interpersonal therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy are other types of therapy commonly used to treat depression.

Electroconvulsive therapy
In electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), electrical currents are passed through the brain to trigger a seizure. Although many people are leery of ECT and its side effects, it typically offers fast, effective relief of depression symptoms. Experts aren’t sure how this therapy relieves the signs and symptoms of depression. The procedure may affect levels of neurotransmitters in your brain. The most common side effect is confusion, which can last from a few minutes to several hours. Some people also experience partial memory loss, but memory often returns.

ECT is usually used for people who don’t get better with medications and for those at high risk of suicide. It may be the only treatment available for older adults with severe depression who can’t take medications because of heart disease.

Hospitalization and residential treatment programs
It’s not often that depression becomes so severe that you require psychiatric hospitalization. And even when depression is severe, it still may not be easy to decide if hospitalization is appropriate. If you can be treated just as effectively or better outside of the hospital, your doctor probably won’t recommend hospitalization.

Psychiatric hospitalization is generally recommended only when you aren’t able to care for yourself properly or when you’re in immediate danger of harming yourself or someone else. Psychiatric hospitalization options include 24-hour inpatient care, partial or day hospitalization, or residential treatment, which offers a supportive place to live.

Nontraditional depression treatment options
If standard depression treatment hasn’t been effective, you may want to try nontraditional depression treatments. These options, sometimes called neurotherapeutic treatments, involve direct stimulation of your brain. They include:

• Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS). VNS uses electrical impulses with a surgically implanted pulse generator to affect mood centers of the brain. The FDA approved this treatment in July 2005 for certain cases of severe or chronic, treatment-resistant depression.
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). TMS is an experimental procedure that uses magnetic fields to alter brain activity. A large electromagnetic coil is held against your scalp near your forehead to produce an electrical current in your brain.
• Deep brain stimulation. This is a highly experimental treatment for depression in which the brain is stimulated with surgically implanted electrodes.

Every parent wants the best for his or her kid, wishing only the best, good health, bright future and prosperous life to the child.

But one morning it just hit you, your child is turning 3 years old next month but still remains unresponsive to you. Your child is not as interactive as other kids would usually be. ‘Could my child be autistic?’

Any parent would be alarmed.

Autism may sound familiar to you. It is however important to first establish that this is not an infection or a contagious disease. This is actually a condition where the brain of the child has developed differently, resulting to certain ramifications that affected the system of the child and manifesting in the lack of interpersonal skills of the child.

This condition occurs to 1 child in every 700 in the population. It was found also that this is most likely to occur among the boys. The signs manifest at an early stage in a child’s life. It is necessary that you be cautious of your child’s behavior and responses.

How does one detect autism?

The signs of autism may be observed as early as 18 months to 3 years age of the kid.

If your child is experiencing difficulty in the following aspects, it would be helpful to consult a doctor or an expert:

* Looking at others – Can he or she not look at you straight to the eye when you try to communicate?

* Playing with other kids – Does he or she avoid other kids or automatically shies away?

* Imagining – Can he or she not handle make-believe games?

* Communicating – Are there words that he or she cannot say or will have to be said over and over before he or she can grasp it?

* Repetition – Are there mannerisms or motor movements that he or she keeps repeating for no apparent reason or purpose?

* Changes – Is he or she inflexible to changes? Does he or she get alarmed when you change a certain routine, like waking up while it is still dark?

Some babies can actually manifest signs of autism

* Babies that do not look in the eye can be displaying signs of autism, especially if they would rather stare at moving mechanical objects or parts of it.

* Too calm babies should also be observed. Are they able to lie for hours without crying?

* When babies do not play or do not interact with other babies.

How does one address this condition of autism?

The cause of autism is still unknown. That is why parents should not blame themselves if they feel that they had been negligent in taking care of their kids during infancy, or if a mother thinks she might not have properly taken care of herself during pregnancy.

Just as the definite cause is still unknown, there is no definite treatment to get rid of autism.

Even if the parent may not be able to free his or her child from the condition, the best option to the parents of an autistic child is to address the problem. It is best to consult an expert on this field. Know the various peculiarities of the kid. The family may have to stick to a definite lifestyle to adjust to the needs of the child. This would require extra patience also. Send the child to a special education school. If the autism of the child is relatively mild, be sure that you inform ahead the teacher or the principal of the condition.

You have a special child. The kid is special, because his or her abilities are different from the ordinary kid her age. Provide special treatment and care needed. Give your attention. Stay by his or her side.

More than anything else; simply make the child feel your loving care.

Although there is no known cure for autism, a combination of specialized treatment and education programs can often help many patients. The most common autism treatment options involve both occupational and physical therapy. Occupational therapy helps improve independent function and teaches patients basic skills such as buttoning a shirt or bathing – while physical therapy involves using exercise and other physical measures such as using massage and heat in order to help patients control body movements.

Your doctor can help identify resources in your area that may work for your child. Treatment options may include:

• Behavior Modification. Many programs have been developed to address the range of social, language and behavioral difficulties associated with autism. Some programs focus on reducing problem behaviors and teaching new skills. Sensory integration therapy is a type of behavior modification that focuses on helping autistic patients cope with different sensory stimulation. The treatment may include having the patient handle materials with different textures or listen to different sounds. Along the same lines, another behavior modification technique called “social stories” can also prove helpful in improving an autism patient’s undeveloped social skills. Using social stories helps a patient better understand their feelings, ideas, as well as the points of view of others, and may suggest to the patient an alternate response to a particular situation. Communication therapy is used to treat autistic patients who are unable to communicate verbally, or to it may be used to initiate language development in young children with the disorder.
• Communication therapies. Communication therapy is used to treat autistic patients who are unable to communicate verbally, or to it may be used to initiate language development in young children with the disorder. The use of music has also proven to be an effective communication therapy for autism patients. Music therapy can be easily adjusted to an individual child’s strengths and weaknesses it is often quite helpful in improving patient’s deficiencies in social and communication skills. Or program entitled “Special Kids” (www.specialkids.com) can helps children with a variety of developmental, cognitive and learning disabilities acquire speech, reading, writing, early academics, personal hygiene, self-help, social and play skills.
• Educational therapies. Children with autism often respond well to highly structured education programs. Successful programs often include a team of specialists and a variety of activities to improve social skills, communication and behavior. Preschool children who receive intensive, individualized behavioral interventions show good progress.
• Drug therapies. No medication can improve the core signs of autism, but certain medications can help control symptoms. Antidepressants may be prescribed for anxiety, for example, and antipsychotic drugs are sometimes used to treat severe behavioral problems.

Because autism is a devastating and so far incurable disease, many parents seek out alternative therapies. Though some families have reported good results with special diets and other complementary approaches, studies have not been able to confirm or deny the usefulness of these treatments. Some of the most common alternative therapies include:

• Creative therapies. Some parents choose to supplement educational and medical intervention with art therapy, music therapy or sensory integration, which focuses on reducing a child’s sensitivity to touch or sound.
• Special diets. Several diet strategies have been suggested as possible treatments for autism, including restriction of food allergens; probiotics; a yeast-free diet; a gluten-free, casein-free diet; and dietary supplements such as vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B6 and magnesium, folic acid, vitamin B12 and omega-3 fatty acids. The diet that has been tried most extensively — and with the greatest anecdotal success — eliminates gluten — a protein found in most grains, including wheat — and casein (a milk protein). To learn more, talk to a registered dietitian with special expertise in autism.
• Chelation therapy. This treatment, which is recommended by some doctors and parents, is said to remove mercury from the body. But no studies have shown a link between mercury and autism, and chelation has not been shown to be a safe or effective treatment.

Autism is a disorder that is usually first diagnosed in early childhood. Children with autism might have problems talking with you, or they might not look you in the eye when you talk to them. Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and affects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others. Autism is defined by a certain set of behaviors and is a “spectrum disorder” that affects individuals differently and to varying degrees.

What Causes Autism?

No one really knows for sure what causes autism.  For many people, this uncertainty is terribly frustrating. Given the complexity of the disease, the range of autistic disorders and the fact that no two children with autism are alike, it’s probable that there are many causes. These may include:

• Genetic errors. Researchers have discovered a number of genes that appear to be involved in autism. Some may make a child more susceptible to the disorder; others affect brain development or the way brain cells communicate. Still others may determine the severity of symptoms. Each genetic error may account for a small number of cases, but taken together, the influence of genes may be substantial. Some genetic errors seem to be inherited, whereas others occur spontaneously.
• Environmental factors. Many health problems are due to both genetic and environmental factors, and this is likely the case with autism as well. Researchers are currently exploring whether viral infections and air pollutants, for instance, play a role in triggering autism.
• Other causes. Other factors under investigation include problems during labor and delivery and the role of the immune system in autism. Some researchers believe that damage to the amygdala — a portion of the brain that serves as a danger detector — may play a role in autism.

One of the greatest controversies in autism centers on whether a link exists between autism and certain childhood vaccines, particularly the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and vaccines with thimerosal, a preservative that contains a small amount of mercury. Though most children’s vaccines have been free of thimerosal since 2001, the controversy continues. To date, extensive studies have found no link between autism and vaccines.

Autism Symptoms.

Children with autism generally have problems in three crucial areas of development — social interaction, language and behavior. But because the symptoms of autism vary greatly, two children with the same diagnosis may act quite differently and have strikingly different skills. In most cases, though, the most severe autism is marked by a complete inability to communicate or interact with other people.

Many children show signs of autism in early infancy. Other children may develop normally for the first few months or years of life but then suddenly become withdrawn, aggressive or lose language skills they’ve already acquired. Though each child with autism is likely to have a unique pattern of behavior, these characteristics are common signs of the disorder:

Social skills

• Fails to respond to his or her name
• Has poor eye contact
• Appears not to hear you at times
• Resists cuddling and holding
• Appears unaware of others’ feelings
• Seems to prefer playing alone — retreats into his or her “own world”

Language

• Starts talking later than other children
• Loses previously acquired ability to say words or sentences
• Does not make eye contact when making requests
• Speaks with an abnormal tone or rhythm — may use a singsong voice or robot-like speech
• Can’t start a conversation or keep one going
• May repeat words or phrases verbatim, but doesn’t understand how to use them

Behavior

• Performs repetitive movements, such as rocking, spinning or hand-flapping
• Develops specific routines or rituals
• Becomes disturbed at the slightest change in routines or rituals
• Moves constantly
• May be fascinated by parts of an object, such as the spinning wheels of a toy car
• May be unusually sensitive to light, sound and touch and yet oblivious to pain

Young children with autism also have a hard time sharing experiences with others. When read to, for example, they’re unlikely to point at pictures in the book. This early-developing social skill is crucial to later language and social development.

As they mature, some children with autism become more engaged with others and show less marked disturbances in behavior. Some, usually those with the least severe problems, eventually may lead normal or near-normal lives. Others, however, continue to have great difficulty with language or social skills, and the adolescent years can mean a worsening of behavior problems.

The majority of children with autism are slow to acquire new knowledge or skills and some have signs of lower than normal intelligence. Other children with autism have normal to high intelligence. These children learn quickly yet have trouble communicating, applying what they know in everyday life and adjusting in social situations. An extremely small number of children with autism are “autistic savants” and have exceptional skills in a specific area, such as art, math or music.

Autism is a general term that is used to cover a number of disorders known as Autism Spectrum disorders. These disorders affect the ones that have them in their interaction and communication with others. Autism can affect anyone, no matter what age, sex, or race they are, and at the moment millions of people, both children and adults are suffering from one form of autism or another throughout the world. If one member of the family has one of the Autism Spectrum Disorders then the whole family will feel the repercussions, financial and social problems will occur and furthermore, it is a great chance that the children of the person who has Autism will also have it because it is transmitted genetically to the ancestors.

Children with autism don’t understand what the others are saying, cannot interact with other children and cannot play with them. The affection seriously affects the behavior, some of the patients developed an aggressive defense against anyone who tried to communicate with them, others appeared to develop a special sensitivity to the environment and its changes.

How can autism be detected, does it have any specific symptoms? Well, it’s up to the family and the ones around someone with autism spectrum disorders to discover his/her condition. In the children’s case the family or the teacher should be the first to notice that a child has a different behavior. These are the signs that can make you suspect a child of autism:
-the child starts to speak at an older age, later than the other children
-he focuses on one single object for hours sometimes
-he can speak words, but until the age of 2-3 years old he does not say a sentence with more than one word in it
-some of the children with autism spectrum disorders don’t even respond to their own name when it is called
-the general behavior of the child indicates that he is withdrawn, indifferent and lonely.

However, if you or your child are diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, then you will have one of five types of autism spectrum disorder:-

• Asperger Syndrome
• Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
• PDD-NOS or Pervasive Developmental Disorder (Not Otherwise Specified)
• Rett Syndrome
• Autism – Also referred to as SLD Autism or Kanner’s Syndrome

Sufferers of each of these five autism spectrum disorders share a “triad of impairments”, or three common characteristics, though with varying degrees. All three of these common impairments are to do with socialization and social skills.

# The Triad Of Impairments

1) Difficulty with Interaction

All autistic people have some difficulty interacting with those around them. This impairment covers problems making friends and “fitting in”, difficulty mixing with their peers, problems understanding social rules and the rules of conversation, and not picking up on other people’s feelings or showing their own in an inappropriate manner.

2) Difficulty with Social Imagination

This second impairment is to do with empathy and understanding consequences. An autistic person many have problems understanding the feelings and actions of other, coping with change, planning for the future, coping with new situations and experiences, understanding risks and dangers, and playing imaginatively.

3) Difficulty Communicating

All autistic people have some degree of difficulty either with communicating or with understanding communication. Some sufferers will have problems with speech, some will not understand the different ways people communicate – gestures, body language and facial expressions, others will take things that people say quite literally and not understand jokes or sarcasm, and some just will not understand how conversation works and will interrupt or change the subject.

# Other Common Characteristics

Although there are only three characteristics which are common to all of the autism spectrum disorders, some of them do share other characteristics and difficulties:-

• Sensory sensitivity – Many parents report that their autistic children are either hypersensitive or hyposensitive. Hypersensitivity is when a child is over-sensitive to touch, tastes, noises and smells. Hyposensitivity is the complete opposite and may mean that a child has problems with fine motor skills, like doing up buttons, and may not be able to feel pain.
• Obsessions – It is common for many autistic children to become “fixated” on a certain hobby or interest.
• Learning disabilities – Some autistic children have learning problems and may need special support at school. Some autistic people also have problems like dyspraxia, dyslexia or ADHD.
• A need for fixed rules and routine – As I have said, it is common for autistic people to have problems coping with change and new experiences. An autistic child may cope better if they have a predictable daily routine.
• Problems with daily chores and actions – Things that the rest of us take for granted, like brushing our teeth, washing and making our beds, may be difficult for an autistic child or adult to remember and do.