Regressive Autism: How Common Is It Really
Regressive autism is a very rare condition. A child appears to show normal social, emotional, and language development, and then loses their speech and social skills for no discernible reason.
This usually develops between 15 and 30 months of age. It can take place very suddenly or gradually. The child usually struggles to regain the skills that they have lost.
Regressive autism is also known as acquired autistic syndrome, autism with regression, and autistic regression.
Mitochondria Dysfunction And Neurodevelopmental Regression
Several studies suggest that NDR is associated with mitochondrial dysfunction, especially in children with ASD,. For example, Shoffner et al. showed that the majority of the children with ASD who were diagnosed with mitochondrial disease had a sudden rapid NDR, resulting in the development of ASD symptoms following an inflammatory trigger and fever. In addition, a meta-analysis of children with ASD also diagnosed with mitochondrial disease demonstrates a significantly higher rate of NDR. We have developed a model of mitochondrial dysfunction in lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from patients with ASD where the mitochondria are more sensitive to reactive oxygen species as manifest by a significant loss of Reserve Capacity as reactive oxygen species is increased in vitro,,,,,,,. This subset of lymphoblastoid cell lines also respond differently to environmental agents associated with ASD including trichloroacetaldehyde hydrate and the microbiome associated short-chain fatty-acids propionate and butyrate. Thus, it is likely that many children with ASD and NDR have underlying mitochondrial dysfunction which makes their mitochondria sensitive to both supportive and detrimental environmental influences.
Diagnostic Tools For Children With Regressive Autism
Fortunately, there are many tools that can be used to diagnose children with this kind of autism.
Many specialists will be responsible for determining if the child truly has this kind of autism.
This can include having a multidisciplinary team which consists of the psychologist, speech pathologist, paediatrician, and a child specialist.
This kind of team can reach an accurate diagnosis of the child with this kind of autism.
This kind of diagnosis can lead to the best kind of psychological intervention for the affected child.
There are also several procedures involved when the child is going through this assessment.
This can lead to specialists observing the affected child on how he or she deals with other children and asking the parents on the childs behaviour at home and at school.
The affected child will also be evaluated for his or her physical and mental strengths such as kicking and thinking.
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Vaccines And Vaccine Side
Background
The introduction of modified live viruses as vaccines enable the virus to attach its genetic material into the cell which replicates i.e. the host cell continues to function whilst producing the viral protein. This stimulates the production of antibodies. Under normal circumstances exposure to a viral disease would be countered at various levels enabling the body to steadily increase its immune response. By contrast, the injection of vaccines directly into the blood system overpowers the normal immune response leading to its rapid depletion. It is now suspected that long-term persistence of viruses and other proteins may produce chronic disease i.e. instead of producing a genuine immunity the vaccines are altering the body’s systemic and biochemical stability, suppressing the production of differing types of white blood cells and hence immune function. Furthermore the introduction of many vaccines introduces a large number of foreign proteins which may be sufficient to ensure that immune function never returns to baseline and/or that immune biochemistry is fundamentally altered. Consequently there now exists a growing concern which links immunizations to the huge increase in recent decades of auto-immune diseases e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, lupus erythematosus, lymphoma, leukemia, autoimmune demyelinative optic neuritis, diabetes mellitus, etc.
What Causes Regression In Autism
Regression in autism is caused by something that hasnt been found in studies yet.
Although there are potential influences such as epilepsy, early childhood immunizations, and epileptiform EEGs.
There are still minimal causal and correlational relationships when it comes to this kind of trait in this kind of psychological disorder.
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Autonomic Nervous System Dysfunction
In general problems with the stability of the autonomic nervous system can be expected to be manifest as follows:
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Loss of Sense perception and Sensory Coordination
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System dysfunction
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Behavioural dysfunction
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Problems with Diet and Elimination
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Impaired and/or Delayed Neural Development
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Atypical brain waves
These are prevalent in autism.
Autism And The Mmr Vaccine
What is Autism?
Autism is a complex biological disorder of development that lasts throughout a person’s life. People with autism have problems with social interaction and communication, so they may have trouble having a conversation with you, or they may not look you in the eye. They sometimes have behaviors that they have to do or that they do over and over, like not being able to listen until their pencils are lined up or saying the same sentence again and again. They may flap their arms to tell you they are happy, or they might hurt themselves to tell you they are not.
One person with autism may have different symptoms, show different behaviors, and come from different environments than others with autism. Because of these differences, doctors now think of autism as a “spectrum” disorder, or a group of disorders with a range of similar features. Doctors classify people with autism spectrum disorder based on their autistic symptoms. A person with mild autistic symptoms is at one end of the spectrum. A person with more serious symptoms of autism is at the other end of the spectrum. But they both have a form of ASD.
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development , part of the National Institutes of Health , is one of the NIH Institutes doing research into various aspects of autism, including its causes, how many people have it, and its treatments.
Why do people think that vaccines can cause autism?
Should my child have the MMR vaccine?
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Some Facts About Autism With Regression
Studies have shown the levels of social and academic impairment among children with autism are different on a case to case basis. Research also shows that children with autism who receive early treatment display better progress. Here are other results of the different studies:
The diminishing skills in children with autistic regression were observed at the average age of 19 months. It was also observed that most of these children had already started to show slight delays in development before they began to exhibit a loss of words. However, the majority of kids with regression have shown less apparent symptoms of their condition before their actual loss of skills.
Almost 77 percent of children who suffered language loss also experienced loss in communication skills. Children who used to be very talkative and then suddenly stopped talking exhibited a pattern of developing and losing nonverbal communication skills. These skills include imitation, direct eye contact, responding to their name, participation in social games, receptive language skills before speech, and gestures.
There is a possibility that a regressive structure caused by genetic and environmental factors can lead to the development of autistic behavior in children. This is because the patterns of development observed by the parents of children with setback-type autism were not gradual. According to the parents, they realized there was something wrong in their children immediately.
Manganese An Important Nutrient Metal With Potentially Toxic Effects
Studies have suggested that Mn exposure is associated with neurocognitive dysfunction and psychosis. Studies have associated higher Mn blood concentration during childhood with more severe ASD symptoms, lower cognitive function, and inflammatory markers. However, using deciduous teeth, Mn concentrations have been shown to be lower in children with the ASD during the prenatal and early postnatal periods in a twin study with higher Mn concentrations correlating with less severe ASD symptoms. Mn is essential for mitochondrial function due to its role in the mitochondrial specific SOD enzyme, but neurons and astrocyte mitochondria are particularly sensitive to excess Mn which can lead to mitochondrial dysfunction through neuroinflammation and impaired mitochondrial repair. The data from this study suggest that a higher Mn concentration is associated with reduced mitochondrial respiration and glycolysis in ASD participants with a history of NDR. Unlike the previous study using deciduous teeth, our participants with ASD did not appear to be Mn deficient. Given the narrow therapeutic window of nutritional Mn, the baseline Mn level of the participants may be an important factor associated with the modulatory effect of Mn on ASD severity and physiology.
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Understanding The Basics Of Regressive Autism
On the basis of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , In US 1 in every 68 children is suffering from Regressive autism or autism. In India, this estimation is about 23 of every 10,000 children.
Regression autism is also described as autism with regression, Autistic regression, Setback-type autism, and Acquired autistic syndrome. Because of this, a person starts to lose speech and social skills.
Children with regressive autism suddenly start to lose speech and social skills in between normal growth.
A case study has also been done to find the characteristics of autistic regression and to compare the clinical and developmental profile of children with autism spectrum disorders .
About one-third of children with ASD lose some skills during the preschool period, usually speech, but sometimes nonverbal communication, social or play skills are also affected.
These indications and symptoms are usually noticed between the ages of 15 and 30 months.
The severity of regression by autism spectrum diagnosis shown in the above graph has been discussed in IAN RESEARCH REPORT
Its important that a child with regressive autism gets the proper diagnosis early on as well as the appropriate treatments in an attempt to reduce symptoms.
Keep in mind, it may be possible that kids with autism have a different type of problem. The improvement will be dependent on medical or treatment factors.
The Systemic Nature Of Physiology And Function
The body is a bio-dynamic, wholistic and systemic organism. It responds to sensory input which enables the autonomic nervous system thereby influencing behavior, the regulation of physiological systems, and function of the visceral organs . The established association between visual perception, the autonomic nervous system, physiological systems, and biochemistry raises issues which may be relevant to autism research.
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Different diseases are associated with differing colour perception e.g. a yellow-blue deficit in diabetes, etc
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Different drugs are associated with altered color perception.
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Enzymes/Proteins are active in the visual spectrum.
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Suppressed immune function affects cognition. In particular, t-cell deficiency is linked to cognitive dysfunction.
Any form of biochemical variation must therefore influence sense perception, sensory coordination and cognitive function. The existence of the physiological systems is not in doubt although there is not universal agreement on their structure. There is wide recognition that they regulate the function of organs , and that there are higher and lower levels for each system , however such systems remain an elusive and under-researched area of medicine. The Russian researcher I.G.Grakov has mathematically modelled the consequences of cognition upon the autonomic nervous system and physiological systems. This included identifying and mapping the nature and structure of the physiological systems .
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Therapies For Children With Regressive Autism
Experts recommend the use of various behavioral and educational therapies as effective treatments for autistic children, including those diagnosed with regressive autism. Because no two individuals with autism are alike, these therapies usually provide targeted treatments based on your childs individual needs.
Regression Marks One In Five Autism Cases Large Study Finds
by Sarah DeWeerdt / 17 August 2016
Topics:
Trying times:
In some children with autism, normal development stalls, often around age 2, and they start to lose many of the communication and social skills they had already mastered. The first large epidemiological study of this phenomenon, called regression, reveals that it occurs in at least 20 percent of children with autism1.
The new work, published in the July/August issue of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, also shows that regression can appear long after the toddler years.
A better understanding of regression could help researchers predict how children will fare over time and provide clues to autisms biological basis. But despite decades of research, scientists continue to debate how prevalent regression is and even what it is.
The data come from the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring network, which estimates autism prevalence in the U.S. The network lets us gain information from much bigger samples than would be otherwise possible, says lead researcher Catherine Bradley, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.
Previous estimates have generally relied on interviews of families from a small number of autism clinics and range from 20 to 30 percent. The new study examined medical and education records of children with autism from the entire eastern half of South Carolina.
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Interactive Autism Network: What Do Ian Families Report About Regression
The Interactive Autism Network is collecting information over the internet from thousands of families of children with ASD throughout the United States. What have these families been reporting about regression in their children with ASD? Does the information they are sharing confirm, refute, or expand upon what other researchers have found?
The following questions were asked:
Researchers investigating autism-related regression are careful to define exactly what constitutes a skill loss that is linked to autism and not to something else. Their aim is to confirm that autism-related regression occurred based on clinical observation by care providers and reports from parents.
How To Treat Regressive Autism In Affected Children
Psychologists and child specialists have suggested that educational and behavioural therapies will be the ones treating this kind of autism in affected children.
These kinds of therapies will be used as well by parents and caregivers once trained and they can work with their affected children themselves.
The following are these psychological interventions used to treat children with this kind of autism:
- Applied Behavioral Analysis for children with this form of autism
This is where the therapist will be working with the affected children in a face-to-face format for 20 to 40 hours per week.
These sessions may begin with the child learning some structured drills such as pointing to an object that the therapist is looking for.
This is then followed by the child learning some basic skills that are appropriate for his or her age.
This kind of behavioural intervention is very effective in its usage amongst children with this kind of autism.
The American Medical Association and the US Surgeon General have also suggested this kind of behavioural intervention to children with other forms of autism.
- Speech Therapy
Since children with this kind of autism will be having complications with speaking, it is only appropriate for them to undergo speech therapy.
This kind of therapy will be teaching the child sign language and a picture exchange communication system which is also recommended as a tool in building speech in children with this kind of autism.
- Sensory Integration
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What Is Regressive Autism In Affected Children
This kind of autism in affected children occurs when the child is showing signs of healthy development until the child starts to show signs that he or she is going back to a regressive state or something that associates with behaviours that are only done by done children who are at a younger age than the child. In this case, this is a setback in the childs development which can baffle parents.
This kind of autism is prominent in children within the ages of 15 and 30 months.
The lack of the appropriate skills can work slowly in this kind of autism.
This kind of autism is typically followed by a stagnant period of an increased progression of the appropriate skills in the childs age.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition issued by the American Psychiatric Association described autism as any type of this psychological disorder that has the signs of regression, including childhood disintegrative disorder which is another kind of psychological disorder.
Children with this kind of autism should be checked immediately to get treated early.
There will be the necessary therapies that will be prescribed to the affected child so that he or she can be back in his or her journey in development.
There will also be tips given to the parents since children with this kind of psychological disorder should be treated with the note in mind that they have this kind of autism to make treatment effective.
A Boy Who Disappeared
The question of the frequency of regressive autism was debated across a series of articles in 2014. First, an excerpt from a book in the New York Times Magazine told the story of Owen, who disappeared just before he turned 3 years old, becoming silent, refusing to make eye contact, and losing motor skills. Doctors diagnosed Owen with regressive autism, placing him in a different category than the children born with it.
Owen retained a fascination with Disney movies, eventually prompting his parents to use characters and concepts from those stories to harness his desire to communicate. After a number of setbacks, Owens family and a psychologist used Disney movies to help Owen develop communication and social skills.
The project was wildly, if painstakingly, successful. By age 20, Owen was leading a full and happy life.
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