Alternative therapies for developmental and learning disabilities

Alternative therapies for developmental and learning disabilities include a range of practices used in the treatment of dyslexia

Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...

, ADHD, Asperger syndrome

Asperger syndrome

Asperger's syndrome that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development...

, autism

Autism

Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...

, Down syndrome

Down syndrome

Down syndrome, or Down's syndrome, trisomy 21, is a chromosomal condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 21st chromosome. It is named after John Langdon Down, the British physician who described the syndrome in 1866. The condition was clinically described earlier in the 19th...

and other developmental

Developmental disability

Developmental disability is a term used in the United States and Canada to describe lifelong disabilities attributable to mental or physical impairments, manifested prior to age 18. It is not synonymous with "developmental delay" which is often a consequence of a temporary illness or trauma during...

and learning disabilities

Learning disability

Learning disability is a classification including several disorders in which a person has difficulty learning in a typical manner, usually caused by an unknown factor or factors...

. Treatments include changes in diet

Diet (nutrition)

In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. With the word diet, it is often implied the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management...

, dietary supplement

Dietary supplement

A dietary supplement, also known as food supplement or nutritional supplement, is a preparation intended to supplement the diet and provide nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, fiber, fatty acids, or amino acids, that may be missing or may not be consumed in sufficient quantities in a person's diet...

s, biofeedback

Biofeedback

Biofeedback is the process of becoming aware of various physiological functions using instruments that provide information on the activity of those same systems, with a goal of being able to manipulate them at will...

, chelation therapy

Chelation therapy

Chelation therapy is the administration of chelating agents to remove heavy metals from the body. For the most common forms of heavy metal intoxication—those involving lead, arsenic or mercury—the standard of care in the United States dictates the use of dimercaptosuccinic acid...

, homeopathy

Homeopathy

Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine in which practitioners claim to treat patients using highly diluted preparations that are believed to cause healthy people to exhibit symptoms that are similar to those exhibited by the patient...

, massage

Massage

Massage is the manipulation of superficial and deeper layers of muscle and connective tissue to enhance function, aid in the healing process, and promote relaxation and well-being. The word comes from the French massage "friction of kneading", or from Arabic massa meaning "to touch, feel or handle"...

and yoga. These therapies generally rely on theories that have little scientific basis, lacking well-controlled, large, randomized trials to demonstrate safety and efficacy; small trials that have reported beneficial effects can be generally explained by the ordinary waxing and waning of the underlying conditions.

Treatment needs

There are a number of non-standard treatments for developmental and learning disabilities. There is a call for alternative therapies particularly when a condition lacks a reliable remediation. For example, there is no cure for autism; the main goals of mainstream behavioral and medical management are to lessen associated deficits and family distress, and to increase quality of life and functional independence. Some alternative therapies, such as gluten-free, casein-free diet

Gluten-free, casein-free diet

A gluten-free casein-free diet eliminates dietary intake of the naturally occurring proteins gluten and casein .-Controversial autism diet:...

s, may be appealing to some parents because the treatment recommended by most experts is thought to be "cold and manipulative". Parents may also consider a drug treatment for attention deficit

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a developmental disorder. It is primarily characterized by "the co-existence of attentional problems and hyperactivity, with each behavior occurring infrequently alone" and symptoms starting before seven years of age.ADHD is the most commonly studied and...

as avoidable. Alternative treatments to a stimulant medication

Methylphenidate

Methylphenidate is a psychostimulant drug approved for treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome and narcolepsy. It may also be prescribed for off-label use in treatment-resistant cases of lethargy, depression, neural insult and obesity...

range from natural products to psychotherapeutic techniques and highly technological interventions. It has been argued that although texts that promote alternative therapies do not directly accuse parents of inadequacy, the claims that the disability is caused by certain factors, such as poor nutrition, supports the culture of mother-blame.

Prevalence

From 12% to 64% of families of a child with ADHD use an alternative therapy, with the lower estimates likely come from narrower definitions of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). School teachers, family and friends are the most common source of suggestion of alternative therapies for ADHD. In 2003, 64 percent of families of a child with special health care needs reported that they use alternative therapies. These therapies included spiritual healing, massage

Massage

, chiropractic

Chiropractic

Chiropractic is a health care profession concerned with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disorders of the neuromusculoskeletal system and the effects of these disorders on general health. It is generally categorized as complementary and alternative medicine...

, herbs and special diets

Diet (nutrition)

, homeopathy

Homeopathy

, self hypnosis and other methods of complementary and alternative medicine

Alternative medicine

Alternative medicine is any healing practice, "that does not fall within the realm of conventional medicine." It is based on historical or cultural traditions, rather than on scientific evidence....

. The need for an alternative therapy was related to the child’s condition and to its evaluation as repairable or not. A 2008 study found that about 40% of Hong Kong children with autism spectrum disorder were treated with CAM, with the most popular therapies being acupuncture

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a type of alternative medicine that treats patients by insertion and manipulation of solid, generally thin needles in the body....

, sensory integration therapy

Sensory integration therapy

Sensory integration therapy or sensory integrative therapy attempts to treat Sensory Integration Dysfunction. Some of these treatments have a questionable rationale and no empirical evidence. Other treatments have been studied, with small positive outcomes, but few conclusions can be drawn due to...

, and Chinese herbology

Chinese herbology

Chinese Herbology is the theory of Traditional Chinese herbal therapy, which accounts for the majority of treatments in Traditional Chinese medicine ....

; the 40% is a lower prevalence than in Canada and the U.S., where biological-based therapies such as special diets predominate. In the U.S. CAM is used by an estimated 20–40% of healthy children, 30–70% of children with special health care needs, and 52–95% of children with autism, and a 2009 survey of U.S. primary care physician

Primary care physician

A primary care physician, or PCP, is a physician/medical doctor who provides both the first contact for a person with an undiagnosed health concern as well as continuing care of varied medical conditions, not limited by cause, organ system, or diagnosis....

s found that more of them recommended than discouraged multivitamin

Multivitamin

A multivitamin is a preparation intended to supplement a human diet with vitamins, dietary minerals, and other nutritional elements. Such preparations are available in the form of tablets, capsules, pastilles, powders, liquids, and injectable formulations...

s, essential fatty acid

Essential fatty acid

Essential fatty acids, or EFAs, are fatty acids that humans and other animals must ingest because the body requires them for good health but cannot synthesize them...

s, melatonin

Melatonin

Melatonin , also known chemically as N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine, is a naturally occurring compound found in animals, plants, and microbes...

, and probiotics as CAM treatments for autism.

Evidence basis

Complementary and alternative medicine often lacks support in scientific evidence

Evidence-based medicine

Evidence-based medicine or evidence-based practice aims to apply the best available evidence gained from the scientific method to clinical decision making. It seeks to assess the strength of evidence of the risks and benefits of treatments and diagnostic tests...

, so its safety and efficacy

Efficacy

Efficacy is the capacity to produce an effect. It has different specific meanings in different fields. In medicine, it is the ability of an intervention or drug to reproduce a desired effect in expert hands and under ideal circumstances.- Healthcare :...

are often questionable. Some therapists who advocate CAM may claim to cure many conditions or disabilities that are not diseases and therefore cannot be "cured".

While some experts encourage parents to be open-minded, others argue that treatments and services with no proven efficacy have opportunity costs because they displace the opportunity to participate in efficient treatments and services. According to Scott O. Lilienfeld,

many individuals who spend large amounts of time and money on ineffective treatments may be left with precious little of either. As a result, they may forfeit the opportunity to obtain treatments that could be more helpful. Thus, even ineffective treatments that are by themselves innocuous can indirectly produce negative consequences.

There is often little or no scientific evidence for effectiveness of alternative therapies. It may be difficult to separate the success of a specific treatment from natural development or from the benefits of the individual's positive attitude. Some phenomena to be considered when evaluating studies are the placebo effect

Placebo effect

Placebo effect may refer to:* Placebo effect, the tendency of any medication or treatment, even an inert or ineffective one, to exhibit results simply because the recipient believes that it will work...

, the Hawthorne effect

Hawthorne effect

The Hawthorne effect is a form of reactivity whereby subjects improve or modify an aspect of their behavior being experimentally measured simply in response to the fact that they know they are being studied, not in response to any particular experimental manipulation.The term was coined in 1950 by...

and different types of attentional and motivational effects. Doubtless, people with disabilities may benefit from some alternative therapies, at least for relaxation, social interaction, personal development and self-esteem. This can be important because many children with learning difficulties suffer from low self-esteem.

For instance, a randomised controlled trial with dyslexic children was undertaken to evaluate the efficiency of Sunflower therapy

Sunflower therapy

Sunflower therapy is a holistic healing approach intended to help children with learning difficulties such as dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD...

which includes applied kinesiology

Applied kinesiology

Applied kinesiology is an alternative medicine method used for diagnosis and determination of therapy. According to practitioners using Applied Kinesiology techniques, it provides feedback on the functional status of the body. AK is a practice within the realm of alternative medicine and is...

, physical manipulation, massage

Massage

, homeopathy

Homeopathy

, herbal remedies and neuro-linguistic programming

Neuro-linguistic programming

Neuro-linguistic programming is an approach to psychotherapy, self-help and organizational change. Founders Richard Bandler and John Grinder say that NLP is a model of interpersonal communication and a system of alternative therapy which seeks to educate people in self-awareness and effective...

. There were no significant improvements in cognitive nor literacy test performance associated with the treatment, but there were significant improvements in self-esteem

Self-esteem

Self-esteem is a term in psychology to reflect a person's overall evaluation or appraisal of his or her own worth. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs and emotions such as triumph, despair, pride and shame: some would distinguish how 'the self-concept is what we think about the self; self-esteem, the...

for the treatment group. This study did not control for the placebo effect

Placebo effect

Precautions

Because many alternative therapies have not been evaluated in scientific studies there may be no guarantee for their safety. In most countries, with the exception of osteopathy

Osteopathy

Osteopathy and osteopathic medicine are often used interchangeably for the philosophy and system of alternative medical practice first proposed by A. T. Still MD, DO in 1874....

and chiropractic

Chiropractic

, complementary medical disciplines have not been state registered. This means there is no law to forbid anyone from setting up as a practitioner even with no qualification nor experience. There are also a lot of 'universities' offering all kinds of alternative medicine degrees for a fee, and their certificates can look very real. These organisations may, on the other hand, offer ongoing training and an insurance to their registered members.

Experts of alternative therapies advise customers to be careful when choosing a therapist. Before taking a therapy, it is wise to find out whether or not previous customers recommend it, the therapist has a qualification and is a registered practitioner, whether the therapy could be dangerous, how much the treatment costs, and whether money will be refunded if the therapy does not work.

External links

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Treatment needs

Prevalence

Evidence basis

Precautions

See also

External links