The pied-piper, autism cures and therapy

July 3, 2:05 PMAutism ExaminerBrian Field

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 Always beware the snake oil salesman, and anyone promising a “cure” for autism. While ABA therapy and changes in diet are the two of the leading paths used in providing assistance to those with autism it is nonetheless amazing to witness the treatments and purported cures floating around. Just yesterday, the Times of India, ran a story declaring “music a wonder drug for autism.”

Somewhat disingenuously, Mysore-based neurosurgeon Dr. Anil Sangli – who is leading a three-hour long raga accompanied by ballet and audio-visual presentations this week -- goes on to report that in his experience “patients” treated with medicines and music have recovered faster than those who were given only drugs. He claims he studied 160 patients in which 80 were exposed to medical-music “reverberation therapy,” and noted that the “recovery rate” of these 80 patients was faster.

While music has certainly been used to help calm patients and used as an ancillary part of larger therapeutic efforts, from as long ago as the medieval era, there has been no scientifically and formally driven study of Sangli’s “reverberation therapy” specific to autism spectrum disorders or autism therapy. It may be that Sangli’s reported successes have been around music’s use as an small sub-set of treating various physical maladies (post-opertative recovery, for example) – but stating that his patients “recover 80% faster” makes it sound like treating the symptoms of autism is akin to treating a finite malady of some kind: twisted ankle, 1 week recovery time; broken arm, 3 weeks recovery time, etc. Autism, however, is not in this category at all since at its essence is how the brain is wired. And while one can learn how to better live in the world-at-large, interact with others, live more healthy and better understand oneself – there is no “undoing” the underlying neurology.

While the patters of music can provide comfort to some with autism, others with ASD may be highly sensitive to music and be distressed by it. Catherine Lord, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan specializing in autism research, says, "We know that music therapy treatment is associated with improvement, but we don't know what the cause of that improvement is." Studies suggesting positive results for music therapy, she says, typically "don't control for what you need to control to find out what causes the change."