MONDAY, JUNE 22, 1998
Doctor finds ways to attack son's autism
Psychiatrist uses non-traditional
methods to fight disorder
By NEIL D. ROSENBERG
of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel staff
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homeopathy and prescription drugs intended for other uses, to help bring his autistic son, Avraham (Avi), out of his withdrawn state.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to become so withdrawn from the real world that they will sit and rock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.