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Oct 9, 2008 11:00 pm US/Eastern
Health Alert: Options Limited for Autism Treatment
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
For children struggling with autism, the treatment options are limited and families are often desperate for answers. Now a controversial doctor in North Jersey says he's discovered a solution.
A year ago, Tommy Ellison who's 3 now, couldn't interact at all. He was lost in the dark world of autism.
"It tore our lives apart, it tore it upside down and we were desperate," Ellison's dad said.
They turned to Dr. James Neubrander and his alternative treatments. They included a variety of supplements and vitamins; a gluten free diet and oxygen therapy in a hyperbaric chamber.
Inside the hyperbaric chamber, there's pressurized oxygen traditionally used to promote healing.
Now it's part of Tommy's therapy. He climbs up and is zipped in for the blast of oxygen along with his mom and plenty of toys.
"He became a totally different boy," reports Ellison's father.
"We were really in shock … Each time we did the treatment, something new happened," his mother added.
Polly and Tom Ellison spent $21,000 dollars to buy their own hyperbaric chamber. Little Tommy initially spent an hour and a half twice a day inside the machine. Now it's periodic. He's had a total of 250 hours of oxygen therapy over the past year, and his parents said he's cured.
"It's the closest thing to a miracle that I've ever seen in my life. I think of the hyperbaric as the 8th wonder of the world," said Tom Ellison.
Doctor James Neubrander says the hyperbaric chamber increases blood flow, decreases inflammation and changes brain chemistry that causes autism.
"I have hundreds of kids that have had a benefit from this," said Dr. James Neubrander with Hyperbaric Treatment Center.
Neubrander explains the benefits come from the combination of therapy and 8 out of 10 children improve. He does concede that this treatment is expensive, won't work for everyone and there are a lot of unknowns. That's a huge issue for many mainstream doctors.
"Historically in medicine, when you have disorders or diseases that don't have clear causes or clear cures, quackery and charlatism abounds and I think that is what's happening here," said Dr. Paul Offit with Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
He also said the science is sketchy. If children really do get better, maybe vitamins or certain foods can help. This could be because there's more attention from parents.
"If someone thinks they have a cure for autism, then test it," said Offit.
"The studies are not there but it doesn't invalidate what we see, the studies are coming," counters Dr. Neubrander.
Dr. Neubrander hopes to publish results within a year and refuses to share any early evidence.
He told us hyperbaric therapy is used by other doctors and a recent study from Thailand also showed it was 80 percent successful.
"For the people who are skeptic and who say it doesn't work, I have a son now. I have a son who kisses me, who hugs me and he waits for me when I come home from work. So it works," said Tommy's father.
Hyperbaric therapy is considered an off label use and it is not specifically approved by the FDA to treat autism.
RELATED LINKS:
http://www.drneubrander.com/dev/index.html
http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/division/generic.jsp?id=79163
http://www.autismspeaks.org/
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