Oxygen for Autism: Miracle Cure or Snake Oil?

High doses of pure oxygen, long used to treat divers with the bends, are the latest experimental autism therapy to capture the hopes of desperate parents who think the treatment could breathe new life into their childrens' damaged brains.

Some doctors report stunning success. Others say the method is an expensive, potentially dangerous sham. And parents are caught in the middle.

Markley said she has treated more than 30 autistic children with HBOT
and "every single child of those 33 had consistent quality-of-life improvements." The improvements, she said, were more pronounced in kids most afflicted by the characteristics of autism: the repetitive behaviors and the impairments in sensory perception, social interaction and communication.

Critics argue that there have been no studies of HBOT and autism that use rigorous scientific models such as double-blind testing. The only evidence involves a handful of autistic youngsters, not nearly enough to draw statistical conclusions.

"There is no evidence in any brain problem that a hyperbaric chamber helps," said Dr. Gary W. Goldstein, president and CEO of the Kennedy
Krieger Institute in Baltimore, which specializes in children's developmental problems.

"Here there is no scientific rationale, and there's actually a school of thought developing that ... breathing in too much oxygen can actually damage brain tissue."

Next month, a 400-child clinical trial will begin at 20 U.S. hyperbaric chambers. Three other such studies have already started enrolling children; in a few years, perhaps, we'll know whether or not the treatment works.

Oxygen therapy for kids with autism debated [Baltimore Sun]

Image: Baston