PLT Test Blog

  Adult-sized people with autism can cause property damage and much worse. I am told that summertime raging is a common problem encountered by neurologists, but it remains poorly understood and usually remains untreated. The most common worry for parents of toddlers diagnosed with severe autism is their lack of speech. By the time these children reach adulthood, the biggest worry for parents is often aggression and self-injury. Often it is the mother who faces the worst episodes of aggression, which is a really cruel turn of events. Aggression is usually not present in young children with autism, in some people it never develops, but in others it later becomes established as a learned behavior and then you are stuck with how to deal with it. One of my own therapy targets has long been to improve cognitive function; this can indeed be achieved and then you can improve important daily living skills (adaptive function). Some steps that you can take to improve cognition, and indee...

  I did mention Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) in a recent post as a therapy for Self-Injurious Behavior (SIB) in autism and since there has been a review paper published very recently, it is the topic of today’s post. There was a previous post on this subject:- Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT) and Cannabidiol (CBD) in Autism By coincidence, Mr Electric, Elon Musk, has just revealed that he has Asperger's Syndrome. I don't think he will be fitting ECT to his Tesla vehicles anytime soon.  ECT is likely only going to be used by those at the other extreme end of the autism spectrum, the ones who do not know was money is, let alone cryptocurrencies. There are many possible ways to treat someone who self-injures or indeed is aggressive towards others. From a psychiatric unit you might get various psychiatric drugs (antipsychotics etc), protective and restraining devices and in some cases Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT). Some literature on ECT suggests that it is effective in almo...

  Today’s post is about an issue that seems to cause a problem in some countries far more than others. While some people with mild autism (Asperger’s) may feel anxiety when dealing with the police, the big problem occurs when the police are called in to restrain someone with severe autism and particularly someone who is also non-verbal with MR/ID.   Most people with untreated severe autism actually have MR/ID, even if it was never diagnosed. It would never occur to me to call the police to restrain my own son, but in North America this is a regular occurrence.   It sometimes does not end well, often it was the parents who called the police, when it is not the parents it is likely to be the school. The research shows that most often the police in the US do successfully resolve the incident. I did ask my son’s assistant what she knows about the police dealing with aggressive autistic people. She knows lots of people with autism and parents. She initially did not understan...

Today’s post might seem to have a very complicated tittle, but to regular readers it is really just another take on what we have seen time and time again. Today we see how another steroid imbalance in autism – low levels of allopregnenolone in this case – affects the neurotransmitter GABA and indeed the chloride transporter KCC2. Putting Prozac/Zoloft to a better use? I did report previously on a trial in adults with autism where pregnenolone was used. Brief report: an open-label study of the neurosteroid pregnenolone in adults with autism spectrum disorder. Pregnenolone - an effective OTC anti-inflammatory therapy for autism? Why Low Doses can work differently, or “Biphasic, U-shaped actions at the GABAa receptor” Recall that disturbed hormonal homeostasis is a key feature of autism. What matters is the level of each hormone inside the brain (i.e. centrally), not in your blood. The only way to get a reliable idea of what is going on would be to take a sample of spinal fluid. Today w...