Physician: Dr. Praful Barvalia & Dr. Piyush Oza | Clinical Psychologist: Miss Vinita Aggarval
DIAGNOSIS: Severe autism with moderate mental retardation
Master F C, Male, 9 years and 6 months, belonging to Roman Catholic family, consulted us on 27.4.07. He was referred by the parents of an autistic child. He was specifically referred for extreme hyperactive behavior. When he came in he was unmanageably restless. He just could not sit at one place even for a second and kept jumping. He was extremely destructive, irritable with self-injurious behaviour. He would bite himself, throw objects, and hit his own head with his hands. When stopped from doing something, he would tear things. He kept pulling his hair and struck himself on the wall. He had poor eye contact, no socialization, no speech and minimal non-verbal communication with his mother. He didn’t mix with peers at all. He also showed sensory disturbances like fear of noise, lightening, crackers, darkness etc. On being scared he would cling to those nearby. He loved to write and would calm down on being given a pen and a paper. He could draw very well with his memory. He sketched various logos like ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ (TV serial) very well just from his memory. Patients also had complaints of recurrent upper respiratory tract infection. During pregnancy, the mother used to remain tense and anxious due to her husband’s alcohol habit. She had a feeling that her husband didn’t like her. Her delivery was a full-term caesarean section. After birth, the child had normal developmental milestones until 1 ½ year of age. Mother felt the possibility of regression of speech and mental milestones after vaccination. Autistic savant: This boy had a gifted ability to sketch. He would draw figures, logos of different brands without seeing them, just from his memory. He would go on writing and drawing and almost went into a frenzy. He can only be calmed if he was allowed to write or draw and he went on filling pages after pages. He also liked music and liked to play the piano. On investigating his BERA, EEG and Karyotype were found to be normal. On evaluation by Clinical Psychologist, THE CHILDHOOD AUTISM RATING SCALE (CARS) was found to be 32 which showed mild Autism. AUTISM TREATMENT EVALUATION CHECKLIST (ATEC) was 73. AUTISTIC HYPERACTIVITY SCORE WAS 52. VINELAND SOCIAL MATURITY SCALE (V.S.M.S.) was 60-65 which showed Mild retardation in Social Functioning. Based on his history and totality of symptoms, indicated Homoeopathic remedy was administered. Within 1 month after medicine, he started showing improvement in Self injurious behavior and hyperactivity. These were reduced by 40-50%. He started visiting a school for Autistic children. Parents reported that he was very cooperative with the teacher and adjusted well to the new environment. This was most unusual as earlier he would get very disturbed in a new environment. His concentration improved and he could attend to tabletop activities on one to one basis with his teacher. He also started responding to commands. He made an effort to communicate. He dragged people to the things he wanted. He could sit in one place. Shrieking and jumping reduced. He started repeating words. Within 6 months of treatment, child showed significant improvement in Hyperactivity. Shrieking and self-injurious behaviour totally disappeared. Violence, tearing things totally stopped. His sensory disturbances like Fear noise and clinging reduced considerably. He started following commands. Father remarked that “earlier was very restless in church and created a ruckus when they took him for mass, now he knows that he has to maintain discipline. He is able to attend mass and sit peacefully for 3-4 hours. More than us parents, its others who have been telling us that they see a remarkable change in the child.”