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Home Tag: "Symptoms"

Tag: Symptoms

25Aug

Autism, today technically referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD is a condition that currently has no known cure. While it has some physical symptoms such as a higher occurrence of gastro-intestinal inflammation, ASD is most known for its wide range of different behavioral symptoms. It’s because of this range that, before the 1980s, people with ASD were often misdiagnosed as being schizophrenic, an error that is no longer made with today’s more nuanced understanding.

As the name implies, however, ASD’s different behavioral symptoms fall along a spectrum of different symptoms, with the symptoms themselves falling along a spectrum of intensity. Today’s diagnostic classification looks at the symptoms themselves, diagnosing whether the individual symptom is mild or severe.

In the past, however, the classification of mild to severe wasn’t applied to the individual symptoms but to the ASD patient. Different ASD intensities fell into different groupings, and one of them was known as “Atypical Autism.”

So what is it, and who would have been considered in this group?

According To The Book

An American medical document known as the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is considered the “guide book” of American medical professionals when it comes to evaluating mental disorders according to an agreed-upon national standard. The DSM, as it is more commonly known, has occupied this position in American mental health science since its first publication in 1952. Since that initial publication, the DSM has occasionally been updated to reflect the current understanding of mental health conditions.

It wasn’t until the 1980s, with the third edition of the book, known as DSM-III, that Autism was even recognized as a unique condition. Before this, it was misdiagnosed as just a specific version of schizophrenia. After the inclusion of Autism in DSM-III medical professionals followed the protocols laid out in DSM-III and categorized people with Autism into four different categories. Atypical Autism, as it was informally known, was one of them.

What Is Atypical Autism?

The formal DSM-III designation for Atypical Autism was Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Other Specified, or PDD-NOS. It was one of four categories, the others being Asperger’s as the “mildest” Autism condition, PDD-NOS as more severe, Classic Autism, and Childhood Disintegration Disorder as the most severe.

PDD-NOS was one of the factors in showing the inadequacy of trying to categorize Autism patients by going over a list of symptoms that belonged only in specific categories, rather than focusing on the symptoms themselves. PDD-NOS became the “miscellaneous” category, where any symptoms that didn’t neatly fit into the other categories would go.

The only thing people could agree on was that PDD-NOS wasn’t as “mild” as Asperger’s, and included symptoms like:

Atypical/Unusual Social Behavior

This was a fairly broad area, so while there were no clear-cut definitions of what it was, it was easy to categorize what it wasn’t, and that was average/normal social interactions with others. If a person experienced difficulty socializing, or others commented that the behavior was abnormal, it would fall under this classification.

Language/Communication Deficit

People with Atypical Autism or PDD-NOS are also often characterized by noticeable communication issues. This could manifest itself early on as delayed communication development, where an infant is speaking the way other babies are. Alternatively, later in life, it shows itself in unusual modes of speech. Some with this condition will speak in a flat, emotionless monotone, like a robot, for example, having never learned to change pitch to communicate feeling or intent.

Repetitive Motions/Behaviors

As with many types of autism, Atypical Autism was also characterized by a focus on repetition. An AA patient would find repeating certain words, actions, or rituals soothing, and repeat them over and over again. This was an immediate, short-term way to deal with stress and attempt to calm down in an upsetting situation.

Atypical Sensory Experience

A very unique symptom of PDD-NOS is a sensory experience that differs from that of others. People with this symptom can process sensory input in very different ways. Smells can be stronger and more overpowering, sounds can be overwhelming; there may be a greater sensitivity to temperature, or tactile sensations. Even patterns or colors may be too bright. In some cases, the sensory experience is because of deprivation, with the PDD-NOS patient unable to smell or taste.

As the incidences of PDD-NOS patients ramped up, and it seemed like there might be more that fell in this category than the others, it was eventually decided by DSM-IV, in 2013, to collapse the previous categories that had been established. Rather than try to pigeonhole patients into specific symptoms in specific groups, the categorizations were removed entirely, the Autism Spectrum Disorder condition and diagnosis was used instead.

This is a much more accurate form of diagnosis for better results in treatment, as it focuses on on the individual symptoms, and the severity of each symptom, rather than drawing arbitrary lines where one ASD patient, “mild,” while another isn’t.

21Aug

Autism or ASD is a condition most well-known for its behavioral symptoms. In the past, ASD was categorized into three major classes, with Asperger’s Syndrome being considered the most “high functioning” of early groupings. Today, however, a more nuanced understanding has led to a doing away with strict groupings, and an assessment of where specific, individual symptoms lie along the autism disorder spectrum.

ASD however, is not a disease like pneumonia. There is no cure, so someone, such as a child, diagnosed with ASD, can’t have it removed simply getting an injection of antibiotics. The ASD condition can only be managed, and there are many different ways to address it. For people with only mild ASD, no treatment may even be necessary, as these people will distinguish themselves in interactions with others as having eccentric or quirky mannerisms. But for people with serious ASD symptoms, even the simple etiquette like not randomly striking out at someone in violence may be too difficult.

This has resulted in many different approaches to managing ASD and its symptoms. In some cases, intensive behavioral therapy can train ASD patients to overcome their behavioral impulses and better regulate themselves unaided. In other cases, medications, such as antipsychotics may be required. But there is now a new type of treatment that is being explored, known as stem cell therapy. But what is it, and how much does it cost?

Using Blank Cells

Stem cell therapy is a type of medical treatment that first found usage in helping cancer patients to overcome their illness. Cancer is a general medical term for any condition where the cells of the body “rebel,” and instead of following the “blueprint” that is the DNA of the patient, they reproduce without limits, or even proper functions, eventually overwhelming the body with “bad” cells that outnumber the healthy ones.

Stem cell therapy uses, as the name implies, a specific type of cell known as the stem cell. Stem cells have the nickname “master cell.” Other cells in the body, if they are capable of reproducing, can only reproduce new versions of themselves, so blood cells can only grow new blood cells, and skin cells can only regrow skin. A heart cell can never grow lung cells, as one extreme example. Stem cells, however, ignore all this and can grow into whatever cell is required. They are the basic building block of human reproduction when a single, fertilized egg cell divides into numerous cells, and then those cells start to specialize into the different organs, like brain, eyes, skin, and bone that make up a person.

It is because of this versatility in “rewriting” themselves into healthy versions of whatever cells are needed that stem cell therapy is already a medically recommended technique for certain types of cancer, such as leukemia. But now, applications for stem cell therapy are spreading to other conditions, including ALS, multiple sclerosis, and ASD.

Not FDA Approved

When looking at the cost of stem cell therapy for ASD, one of the important factors for the cost will be travel, especially for residents of the USA. While stem cell therapy is approved of as a treatment for leukemia, the Food & Drug Administration, the official governing body for safe substances/treatments in America, has only officially recognized stem cell therapy for leukemia. This means that for any of the other possible conditions stem cell therapy could be applied to, no American hospital or clinic will perform the treatment, since it is not legally recognized as viable for anything except leukemia.

This means that traveling and accommodation must be factored into the budget for stem cell therapy. Other countries throughout the world have the facilities to properly and safely administer stem cell treatments. Mexico is one, Georgia in Europe, is another.

The Process

There are two methods of undertaking stem cell therapy, based on the situation a patient is facing after being medically evaluated.

Usage Of Own Stem Cells

If no other sources are available, stem cells can be harvested from within the bone marrow of the patient. This requires an extra procedure, where the patient is put under general anesthetic and the stem cells are harvested. After that, the stem cells are transplanted through intrathecal means, which usually involves an injection into the spinal canal, to facilitate the movement of the stem cells to the brain.

Usage Of Cord Blood

If there is a wish to avoid harvesting stem cells from the bone marrow, another option, if available, is to use the “cord blood” that may have been preserved from younger siblings. Upon birth, umbilical cord blood is rich in stem cells and can, upon request be preserved. If siblings, or the patient, have had cord blood preserved, this can be used for stem cell therapy once retrieved and properly prepared.

In general, stem cell therapy itself averages between USD$12000-15000 depending on the country and technique. A Georgia clinic, for example, reliably charges USD$12000 + VAT for all procedures.

31Jul

As the name implies, ASD, or autism spectrum disorder, is a condition that lies along a broad range of different symptoms and degrees of severity. Someone that is diagnosed as being in the “mild” end of the spectrum may be able to function more or less normally, and only be considered by others to be a little introverted or maybe eccentric in some habits.

On the other end of the spectrum, symptoms can be so severe that someone diagnosed with ASD can be unresponsive and experience great difficulty interacting with others and performing normal, daily activities without significant challenges. Today, regardless of where along this spectrum a person diagnosed with ASD is, that person is said to have ASD.

However, this was not always the case. As recently as six years ago, there was another form of diagnosis used, primarily in American medical circles, to evaluate ASD. The system used different grades of the spectrum, and it had a specific class of ASD called “Atypical Autism.”

So what was Atypical Autism, and how would someone be diagnosed with it?

All In The Book

Between 1994 and 2013, a specific edition of a document known as the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders was used as the textbook reference for medical professionals when diagnosing, identifying, and classifying mental disorders.  There have been five editions of this book, known as DSM since it first started publication in 1952. It was not until the 1980s, with DSM-III that autism was even acknowledged as a unique condition. Before DSM-III children with ASD were diagnosed as schizophrenic and received treatment for such.

After the publication of DSM-III, autism got much more specific examination from medical professionals and had treatments tailor-made for those diagnosed, rather than assuming schizophrenia, which was not an effective treatment and in some cases, even harmful. From this new understanding came the idea that there were different types and “grades” of autism, and one of these was known as Atypical Autism or Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified, also known as PDD-NOS.

What Is It?

The other types of autism were considered Pervasive Developmental Disorders, or PDDs, and fell under five categories; autism, Asperger’s syndrome, childhood disintegration disorder (CDD) and Rett’s Syndrome. The fifth, Atypical Autism, or PDD-NOS, was a “miscellaneous” category for people diagnosed with some autism characteristics who didn’t fit into the other four existing PDD categories.

In effect, atypical autism was an admission that a person being diagnosed had traits of autism, but not “enough” in any one of the four categories to conclusively “drop that person into a box.” In some respects, it is because of the organic, nebulous nature of autism symptoms, and their varying degrees, that when DSM-V eventually came out, the five categories were abandoned, and atypical autism got folded into the others.

What Are The Symptoms?

Atypical autism, when it was still being referred to as such, as had a mix of different symptoms. In the DSM-III and DSM-IV era, Asperger’s Syndrome was considered the “highest functioning” form of autism, with some of those diagnosed with it able to function without any special medical treatment, while those diagnosed with other autism, such as CDD, required more intensive attention and treatment.

Atypical Autism was, in terms of severity, considered somewhere between Asperger’s and typical CDD autism, a “mild” form that didn’t require serious treatment or therapeutic intervention for those diagnosed to have a normal, productive life. The symptoms of atypical autism included:

Atypical/Unusual Social Behavior

This was another broad “umbrella term” that includes potentially everything from delayed responses, to an inability to maintain eye contact. The only consistent thing was that, compared to other people within that culture, the behavior was considered abnormal.

Language/Communication Deficit

Another very broad range of behaviors that could even fall under unusual social behavior. Atypical autism has characteristics such as communication difficulty. This could manifest in delayed communication acquisition, taking much longer to learn to speak, or in unusual speech patterns, such as speaking in a flat monotone, like a “robot,” having never learned to use tone or voice inflection to add nuance to words.

Repetitive Motions/Behaviors

Atypical autism could be characterized by a focus on ritual and repetition. The AA patient would fall back on repeating certain actions or rituals over and over again, either as a way to relax or to feel a sense of control in stressful situations.

Atypical Sensory Experience

Someone diagnosed with atypical autism could have a sensory experience that was different from others, either more intense or less. For example, some could have a much more sensitive experience with touch, reacting much more strongly and negatively to changes in temperature. On the other hand, that sensory stimuli could also be much less refined, such as an atypical autism child have little or no sense of smell, and unable to participate meaningfully in smell-based activities.

Because of this large range of differences, it was eventually decided in 2013 to eliminate the different autism categories. ASD or Autism Spectrum Disorder is now the sole diagnostic category.

11Jun

Autism, better known as an autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, can cause a lot of anxiety for parents if they suspect their child may have this condition. There are many good reasons to be concerned, such as the fact that even to this day, ASD is still not comprehensively understood. Medicine has documented the many symptoms of ASD and established that there is a spectrum for the disorder, with varying degrees of severity. But the primary causes of ASD are not yet understood, and no cure currently exists for the condition.

What medicine does know is that there may be certain genetic components to ASD, since ASD parents can give birth to ASD children. There may also be a pre-natal element to the disorder, as some pregnant women that have contracted illnesses such as rubella have then given birth to children with ASD. But what does it mean when a child is diagnosed with ASD? What are the symptoms and where does a family go from there once ASD has been diagnosed? Here’s what parents should keep an eye out for if they’re concerned about a child having ASD.

General Behavior

ASD is regarded as a range of neurodevelopmental disorders. This means that there are multiple symptoms, usually based in nerve-related activity and the way sensory information is received and processed. In general terms, this means that parents should be on the lookout for unusual behavior.

ASD symptoms largely fall into unusual communication and behavioral issues. Parents may notice these symptoms very early on in the development of a child. In many cases, children can be brought in for an ASD evaluation by the age of two, and get a reliable diagnosis. If you see any of the following issues, you may want to consider an evaluation.

Lack Of Eye Contact

Because of the way that children with ASD process information, a simple action like maintaining eye contact can, even in very young ASD children, cause stress. ASD children learn very quickly that the best way to avoid experiencing unnecessary stress is to avoid eye contact. If your child even after the age of one year, seems to be deliberately avoiding eye contact, especially if you try to maintain it aggressively, this is a big warning.

Avoids Physical Contact

Most children prefer to be hugged, carried and physically interact with parents. An ASD child, however, will find physical contact to be overstimulating, and thus stressful. If your child rejects physical contact, avoids being touched or picked up, and prefers no physical contact at all, this is another sign.

Nonverbal

In some cases, vocal communication can be challenging for some ASD children. If your child is still not verbally communicating at a time when average children are already attempting to speak, start monitoring your child, and thinking about getting an evaluation. Verbal communication with ASD children can vary; some are entirely non-verbal, others seem to learn to speak during infancy, but then regress and lose the ability as they grow older, while others learn to communicate verbally only much later.

Unusual Speech

Even when an ASD child does learn to speak, sometimes it can be very unusual compared to other children. Due to the way they process information, ASD children may find nuance and inflection to be too complex for them to understand initially, so they speak in flat, monotone voices, like robots. In other cases, the way they process speaking may mean they put an unusual emphasis on tone, and when they speak, it comes out lilting, almost like singing, even though they consider it normal, everyday speech.

Empathic Challenges

Empathy is the ability of one person to understand the feelings and emotions of another. For people with ASD, this can sometimes be too difficult to process and understand without additional guidance. As a result, ASD children may not understand emotional displays like pain, sadness, anger or fright. This doesn’t just apply to others; they may not even understand their own emotional reactions when they occur.

Repetitive Motions/Behaviors

Many people will have a personal “tic” they may not be aware of, such as unconsciously rubbing a ring on their finger, or touching an old scar. ASD children, however, may have a magnified version of this, with a frequent, repetitive motion that acts to soothe anxiety. The repetitive behavior can be small movements, such as a repeating hand movement, or it can be much larger, such as rocking the entire body back and forth.

Aggression

Finally, one of the least desirable ASD traits that may express is—at least to an average parent—what appears to be unprovoked, or easily triggered aggression. ASD children can sometimes become very angry over incidents that most people wouldn’t justify as warranting a hostile response. If you find that your child has seemingly unprovoked, or unpredictable bouts of aggression, it may be time to bring that child in for an ASD evaluation.




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