New Dimensions in the Treatment of Autism with Homeopathy

Abstract

Disorders such as autism and mental retardation are developmental disabilities that occur in children. Of these, autism is much more enigmatic than mental retardation. This is because unlike mental retardation where there is global delay in development and reduced I.Q., autism is a developmental neurological disorder which affects brain functioning in specific areas of social and emotional skills and communication abilities with some behavioral stereotypes. This leads to impairments in speech, language and communication skills, impaired social skills and severe inconsistencies in their development. Training and remedial teaching in special schools along with behavior management are the conventional interventions. Using the homeopathic model, I hope to elaborate through this article that homeopathic treatment can help in restoring the internal functional integrity in order to get the best possible results by enhancing and shortening the response to remedial education. This study is an effort to demonstrate the unique modality of homeopathy in the treatment of autism. The study antedates another outcome study of homeopathy in autism conducted by me and published elsewhere (Rajalakshmi, M.A., 2008). Using this study and drawing on the conclusions of my other study along with some recent interesting research findings, I propose that homeopathy is a novel treatment dimension with significant implication in the approach to the management of autism. Six children with a confirmed diagnosis of autism were chosen for the study. Of this three were verbal and three were non-verbal. Two of the children had associated mental retardation. These children were receiving remedial teaching for four hours a day, six days in a week. The criteria used to map the progress of each child were the Autism Behavior Composite Checklist and Profile (ABCCP) along with clinical assessment.