MONDAY, JUNE 22, 1998
Sometimes it takes a unique approach to tame a non-traditional
disorder.
Over the past seven years, child psychiatrist Bruce Semon,
43, has cobbled together a regimen of drastic diet therapy,
homeopathy and prescription drugs intended for other uses,
to help bring his autistic son, Avraham (Avi), out of his
withdrawn state.
It appears to have helped somewhat.
Consider that at age 4 1/2, Avi lost the speech capabilities
he had developed earlier. His fine motor skills disappeared
to the point he could not hold a crayon. He would scream for
hours on end, staying awake each night for three to five hours,
in clear discomfort.
Now, as Avi approaches his 12th birthday, he can swim in deep
water, ride a bicycle without training wheels, throw a ball
two-handed, sleep through the night, and - using a specialized,
assisted keyboard communication - he attends regular school.
And he is beginning to talk again.
But the road from there to here has not been an easy one.
It was filled with trial and error. Parents' love and devotion,
and a father trained in traditional nutrition sciences and
psychiatry, who was able to keep an open mind, apparently
made a difference.
Autism is a difficult disorder, with bizarre traits. Classified
as a developmental disability, it is a neurological disorder
that interferes with normal development of the brain in areas
of reasoning, social interaction and communication.
With a typical onset in the first three years of life, autism
can cause children to become so withdrawn from the real world
that they will sit and rock for hours on end in one position.
They may develop repeated body movements such as hand flapping,
they may be highly resistant to change, and in the most dramatic
cases, they may become overly aggressive to others - and to
themselves. They may repeatedly bang their heads against a
wait, for example.
The Autism Society of America estimates about 400,000 people
nationwide have autism to some degree.
That Semon eventually found a wide variety of techniques to
help his son, who received no treatment until 1991, is not
unusual. According to the Autism Society, "No one approach
is effective in alleviating the symptoms of autism in all
cases." Among the treatments that help are behavior modification,
speech and language therapy, vision therapy, music therapy,
auditory training, medications and dietary interventions.
It was the latter that began Avi's path out of his darkness.
Midnight Revelation
One night in 1991,while his mother, Lori, now 41, was up
with him in the middle of
the night, Avi kept repeating the words “the lights,
the lights." It immediately struck her that Avi was perhaps
suffering a migraine headache. Migraine sufferers often are
sensitive to light. There was a family history of migraines,
and Bruce Semon remembered his father avoided certain foods
to prevent the headaches.
So the couple began by removing chocolate, peanut butter,
orange juice and aged cheeses from Avi's diet, and he became
a little better. “There was less screaming, and
he appeared more comfortable," his father said.
That spring, during Passover, when all yeast-containing and
leavened products were removed from the house and the family’s
diet for eight days, Avi improved even more.
But he still refused to engage in any social interaction.
“We couldn't get him to do anything at all. He would
just sit there," Semon said.
Semon, who earlier had graduated from medical school and recently
obtained a Ph.D in nutrition, began to hone in on other dietary
factors. Eventually, he concluded that fermented products
and yeast-containing foods were affecting his son, and so
he removed all such food products from his son's diet.
The Autism Society, in a position paper on diet, states: “Individuals
with autism often exhibit low tolerances for and/or allergies
to yeast, gluten products and others. Parents have found that
upon elimination of these products, some individuals displayed
improved behaviors and longer attention spans.” But
the society also notes, "there are no rigorous scientific
studies, however, supporting dietary modifications."
Avi's diet now consists primarily of beans, rice, fruits and
vegetables.
As the dietary adjustments were made, he began to improve
in small steps.
"He looked a whole lot better," Semon said. Most
of the screaming was gone. He started to play again. He was
sleeping better. He still couldn't talk, but he was much more
comfortable.
Not long after, Semon began prescribing nystatin, an anti-yeast
drug, for his son. Later still, he added naltrexone, a drug
ordinarily used to treat alcohol dependency. It works by blocking
the effects of opioids, very small amounts of which are found
in milk and wheat products. Semon believes that at low doses,
the drug clears opioids that have accumulated in the brain
and which, when present, have the effect of slowing down brain
function.
Slow Motions
Semon feels that autism, to a large degree (and this is over-simplifying
the disorder) is a condition in which the brain activity has
been slowed down, almost as if it were working in slow motion.
While he can’t say definitively why the drug might help
he believes it acts as a sort of stimulant to Avi's brain.
There have been setbacks.
When Avi was in third grade, he began eating plants and literally
poisoned himself. He still has to be carefully supervised
so he doesn't eat plants.
In his continuing search for remedies, especially to get Avi
to communicate through speech again, Semon turned to homeopathy,
a technique in which the very substances that may be causing
a physical problem are diluted to an extremely weak strength
and then given as a healing tonic.
Avi from time to time takes homeopathic remedies, including
one that is diluted tincture of syphilis. Semon admits he
"has no clue" why such remedies should work, if
they work at all. "They have been totally rejected by
medicine because they are so fanciful" he said. But because
they are also benign, and on the chance it could help, he
uses them.
Into all of this non-traditional mix there also is traditional
treatment. Avi gets four to five hours of intensive applied
behavior analysis therapy most days of the week.
The overall result is a more peaceful Avi who has ever so
slowly developed more skills. He is learning to use a computer
mouse. He is working hard to be able to completely dress himself
but his fine motor skills still are diminished. He cannot
write, but he can hold a pencil. He can in-line skate and
ice skate. He sits quietly, comfortably, while listening to
music, one of his favorite pastimes. And though his articulation
is poor, Avi can tell his parents, “ I want a hot bath."
Semon recently wrote a chapter for a book, “Biological
Treatments for Autism and PDD” (Pervasive Developmental
Disorder) on his diet/drug therapy regiment and also recounts
cases he has treated in his practice.
For some it is too difficult to follow, he says. For others,
there usually is improvement. "I tell them their child
will feel more comfortable."
He admits it is not a panacea.
But somewhere along the way, Avi also taught himself to read.
“Somehow he figured it out," his father said. "He
preserved his intellect.”
For all the difficulties an autistic child poses, there can
be triumphs.
Autism Society of Wisconsin- 888 428 8476
www.asw4autism.org
