‘Tired of being a mom: A 12-year nightmare?’

‘Should the boy be institutionalized? Find out what Dr. Phil thinks’

The syndicated Dr. Phil television show this week features an episode on women who say they can’t cope with their children. One of the spotlighted families has a son with both Down syndrome and autism. The boy is described this way on the show’s website:

Cyndi says if she’d known her 12-year-old son, Alex, had autism and Down syndrome, she may not have brought him into the world. She says he hits himself, screams, and wears diapers because he’s not potty trained. Her husband says he doesn’t find it difficult to care for Alex.

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Stigma of illness a barrier in seeking help

From the Stockton [CA] Record:

According to a national study by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, people from Latino families are unlikely to get treatment for mental illness. Among Latinos with mental disorders, the group found that fewer than one in 11 seeks mental health care specialists. That number went down to fewer than one in 20 among Latino immigrants with mental disorders.

Much of this can be attributed to a lack of education and a stigma attached to mental illness among Latino families, said a NAMI spokeswoman. The families tend to attribute the symptoms of mental illness to witchcraft, demon possession, drug abuse or alcohol abuse.

“It’s easier to believe these things than to believe that your loved one has a mental illness,” she said. “They (would) rather believe it’s something that will go away.”

From the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch and the Associated Press:

A bill in the Ohio House would require health-insurance companies to cover autism treatment as they cover care for other medical conditions. It is modeled after a recently passed mental-health parity law, which requires insurance coverage for certain psychological conditions. Insurance companies have expressed concerns about the bill.

A blue ribbon panel in Missouri is recommending that the state enact legislation requiring private insurers to provide coverage for people with autism through age 21 for services like behavioral, occupational, speech and physical therapies, and medications, nutritional supplements and assessment services.

At least 17 states — including Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, New York and Tennessee — require health plans to provide some coverage of autism treatment. And several states are considering measures similar to the one in Ohio.

See earlier posts here and here.

From Time Magazine, the Associated Press, U.S. News & World Report, and others.

The nation’s leading group of pediatricians is urging that all children be screened for autism twice by age two.

The advice is meant to help both parents and doctors spot autism sooner. There is no cure for the disorder, but experts say that early therapy can lessen its severity.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is releasing two reports that detail the call for early screening and the symptoms to watch for. They will appear in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics and on the group’s Web site – http://www.aap.org.

The two new reports say children with suspected autism should start treatment even before a formal diagnosis. They also warn parents about the special diets and alternative treatments endorsed by celebrities, saying there’s no proof those work.

Recommended treatment should include at least 25 hours a week of intensive behavior-based therapy, including educational activities and speech therapy, according to the reports. They list several specific approaches that have been shown to help

From the Washington Post:

Online environments are increasingly allowing people with disabilities to develop skills or gain confidence.

Susan Brown, who had a stroke four years ago, has regained use of her legs thanks in part to encouragement she gets from an online “virtual world” where she can walk, run and even dance. Other people use online avatars to help them learn to deal with agoraphobia, autism, cerebral palsy, depression, paralysis, cystic fibrosis and other conditions.

“We’re at a major technical and social transition with this technology. It has very recently started to become a very big deal, and we haven’t by any means digested what the implications are,” said William Sims Bainbridge, a social scientist at the National Science Foundation.

From Reuters (UK):

Teenagers who have survived childhood cancer are 50 percent more likely to be depressed or anxious than their siblings and 70 percent more likely to show antisocial behaviors or attention deficits, according to a report by Emory University researchers in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Certain cancer treatments were particularly associated with these problems, including brain radiation and spinal injections of the cancer drug methotrexate. These therapies directly affect the functioning of the central nervous system and are known to be linked to neurological and psychological problems.

From Newsday, a report from the American Psychological Association’s annual meeting in San Francisco.

Alternative treatments for autism – some of them potentially deadly – are growing more pervasive and run the gamut from dietary supplements to prescribing a potentially dangerous diabetes drug, which now carries the government’s most stringent warning.

“What this all boils down to is that people are very motivated to help their children. They’re desperate and there are people out there who are preying on their desperation,” said James Mulick, a professor of pediatrics and psychology at Ohio State University.

Mulick cited diets, such as those in which the wheat protein gluten is eliminated, to the use of vitamin supplements as some of the harmless but he believes ineffective treatments sought by parents of autistic children.

… Chelation therapy, Mulick said, is a potentially dangerous process that uses a compound that is supposed to remove heavy metals from children’s tissues.

The story includes quotes from a doctor who defends the use of chelation and the diabetes drug Actos for children with autism. Last week Actos received a “black box warning” from the FDA, the agency’s strongest level of caution.

Related story from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Doctor charged with involuntary manslaughter for his use of chelation to treat a boy’s autism.