Anti Depression Therapy Can Help Kids With Autism

Most children with autism, is caused by genetic factors depression, drug treatment can get anti depression drugs, such as Prozac (fluoxetine), according to the Dr. Robert DeLong, a specialist at Duke University's nerve, England.

In a journal Neurology, March 23 edition, DeLong presents a new hypothesis about two-thirds of children with infantile autism. In fact these children can be cured. Disharmony genetics, is a form of initial attack of severe depression. DeLong argument based on recent genetic analysis, research on behavior, brain chemistry, and analysis of concepts in children with autism, through research at Duke University and other institutes.

Results of research:

"Research on the genetics and brain concepts, as well as reexamination of the classic symptoms of autism, showing that many autistic children suffer from autism, not because of heredity and we know how to handle it," said DeLong.

Children who suffer from autism appear as if they were shackled by their own minds, because they can not learn the language, or social skills needed in the environment.

Autism is in fact a spectrum of disharmony with symptoms similar, DeLong said. Autistic children, in the second year of their lives are usually lost their ability to interact with people in the neighborhood and did not speak, or using language, although many of them had normal intelligence.

Some people with autism are caused by disease or injury in certain areas of the brain, but most cases are not known, referred to as idiopathic cases. DeLong said that 70 percent of patients with an unpleasant disharmony, such as mental retardation or disorders that suppress the thought, not because of heredity.

"Several years ago I noticed, when we look carefully the symptoms of autism, the symptoms are more visible as depression and mental disharmony," said DeLong.

"These kids do not show joy or kespontanan which usually appear on normal children. And they often show extreme jolt of desire, anger and fear that too much."

De Long has found various clues, from the research group of autistic children, who suffer from autism due to genetic incompatibility. Seen the same thing happened to these children, that they can be treated with anti-depression medication.

When the researchers studied the brains of children who suffer from idiopathic autism, they found that the neurotransmitter serotonin is very low on the left side of the brain in areas of language usage. Serotonin is also important to influence mood. In people who suffer from clinical depression, low serotonin.

"On the development of children's brain, serotonin is not only a role as the successor of information, but also as agents (substance, strength) that affect the developer's brain growth," said DeLong. "If the rank of serotonin in the left hemisphere did not reach a critical rating in early childhood, people will be able to see such symptoms suffered autism: disruption of the development of cognitive abilities, social and emotional."

Research on people suffering with brain surgery to separate the relationship between left hemisphere and right brain, to relieve the symptoms of epilepsy, usually called the experiment "the separation of the brain, the brain showed a left-mover part of language skills and cause and effect, whereas the brain the right is the driving visual skills, body movement, music and memorization skills. Ranking of serotonin in the brain to the right of the majority of children with idiopathic autism to normal condition and visual skills as well as their body movements are also normal. In fact, many scholars of autism show excessive compensation in the right brain, which gives them more abilities in counting skills, mathematics, music or artistic.

When the researchers studied children and older adolescents who are diagnosed as mental disharmony, they found that these children have the visual skills and body movement is bigger, but the low language skills, although not for autistic children.

These discoveries led DeLong to try to take care of children with autism with Prozac (fluo-xetine) and some specific drugs prevention was resisting serotonin (SSRls). These drugs are drugs for treating depression, work add serotonin in the brain.

Reports a study in October 1998, published by the Journal of Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, DeLong and his colleagues reported that when the 37 autistic children ages 3 to 7 years of being treated with Prozac (fluoxetin) for three years, 22 of whom responded good use of the drug, to regain language skills, the ability to increase and disruption bersosial suffered their minds such as, fixed on a particular object for hours will be lost. Of the children who responded to treatment well, all with a history of major depressive illness from his family.

"Interesting to say that autism and mental disharmony caused by the same cause, namely a defective gene," said DeLong, "And the fact of the gene leads to start there."

Research by DeLong and colleagues at Duke University pointed to a gene somewhere on chromosome 15, as a potential autism gene. And now many studies on depression in various educational institutions to show the same results of chromosome 15, as the genes of a potential mental disharmony.

"Although we can not confirm that this gene is only one and the same, but the fact is giving hope, and hopefully in the near future we can get the answer," said DeLong.

"Research on genetics, giving hope to the early diagnosis," said DeLong, and development of special treatment more to improve the procurement of serotonin in the brain development of autistic children will even add the hope for an effective treatment for this disease.

"Rather than think of autism as a disease that can not be cured, we better see it as a curable disease, it's better than having no hope," said DeLong. "My hope is that subsequent research can be identified early and intervene in autism, that autism is a disease that can be addressed through treatment."