By Michael Conlon CHICAGO (Reuters) - Fever can temporarily unlock autism in children, a finding that could shed light on the origins of the disorder and provide clues for treatment, said Monday a group of researchers.
It appears that fever restores communication between brain cells in areas autistic brain, restoring a child's ability to interact and socialize during the fever, the study said.
"The results of this study are important because they show that the autistic brain is plastic, or capable of altering current connections and forming new ones in response to different experiences or conditions," said Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, a pediatric neurologist at the Kennedy Institute Krieger of Baltimore, one of the authors.
The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, was based on 30 children with autism aged 2 to 18 years who were observed during and after a fever of at least 38 degrees Celsius.
More than 80 percent of those who had fever showed some improvements in behavior and 30 percent had dramatic improvements, the researchers said.
The change involved, for example, longer periods of concentration, more speech, better eye contact and better relationships with adults and other children in general.
Zimmerman's team said the fever effect had been noted in a anecdotal earlier by parents and doctors.
Lee Grossman, chief executive of the Autism Society of America, said he had seen in his own son, now 20 years.
Grossman stressed in an interview that the study's authors had said more study was needed on the effect of fever and its implications. "It's good to have realized this and are taking further," he said.
People with autism spectrum disorders suffer various degrees of limitation in social interaction, lack of verbal and nonverbal communication and other skills. It is not known what causes the disease.
About 1.5 million Americans have some form of austismo, according to data from the Autism Society of America.
According to Zimmerman, but currently there is no definitive medical treatment, speech therapy and expression, which began as soon as possible after diagnosis, "may be significantly important. "
Zimmerman considered fever research, headed by colleague Laura Curran," an exciting track "that could help find the way to a treatment reconnect the autistic brain.
is believed that the effects of fever occur only in children, whose brains are more "plastic" than adults, said the neurologist.
0 comments:
Post a Comment