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MysteryFan3
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18 Apr 2008, 1:01 am

I'm not sure how long the story will be available, but it's interesting.

Autism symptoms less severe after treatment, says U of L research team


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KBABZ
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18 Apr 2008, 2:47 am

This is VERY interesting for me because a major character in my story, Kipo, has an obsession with Magnets, so you'd think that being around them so much would make her less Autistic.

I doubt this would improve things much. To me, AS and Autism isn't social inability and the like, it's a different learning pattern. Rather than observe and learn, we have to be taught what to learn. We're mostly self-concerned and solitary (maybe a Matriarch gene?).


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psmaster
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18 Apr 2008, 7:46 am

HEY! In Louisville, Ky! I live in Lexington, Ky. Just a town over.
But I think this is interesting because I love magnets (even though I also love computers and we all know what happens if they mingle together!)



matsuiny2004
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21 Apr 2008, 4:36 pm

It sounds more like a therapy to me



Hodor
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21 Apr 2008, 5:24 pm

Gah. My ancient computer crashes every time I try to load the page. Can anyone copy and paste the text onto here so that I can read it?


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DeaconBlues
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21 Apr 2008, 8:25 pm

Here you go, Hodor. The fact that it's still in preliminary testing, and that only one of the symptoms mentioned is really a problem to many autistics (other people have a problem with our "repetitive actions" sometimes, but do your stims really bother you?), make me think the headline writer and story reporter may have been a tad overblown here:

Quote:
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - People with autism experienced less severe symptoms after researchers pulsed a low frequency magnetic field around their brains, a University of Louisville research team announced today.

The treatment, transcranial magnetic stimulation, is still in early testing stages, but has potential to become an effective treatment for the major symptoms of autism, said neuroscientist Manuel Casanova.

Members of the UofL research team placed a coil on the scalps of 10 people with autism to create a low frequency magnetic field, which they then pulsed by reversing the field’s polarity. After receiving a 20 minute treatment twice a week for five weeks, patients showed fewer symptoms of hyperactivity, sensory overload and repetitive behaviors, said psychologist Lonnie Sears, a project collaborator.

Symptoms were assessed before and after the treatment by measuring patients’ brain activity and scores on standard neurological and psychological tests.

Casanova has demonstrated in previous studies that structural differences between autistic and normal brains contribute to the symptoms of autism, including sensory, social and communication problems that limit the patients’ ability to function independently.

“Our results are preliminary, but they show a great deal of promise in reducing the severity of symptoms that people with autism find most distressing and, as a result, helping them communicate and relate better - something that most of us take for granted,” Casanova said.

The team also found that the treatment did not seem to affect areas of “giftedness” in the test group.

“This is important because, despite communication and social problems, some people with autism are very gifted in specific areas of intelligence,” he added.

One in 150 children is diagnosed with autism each year and rates of diagnosis have increased sharply over the last two decades, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


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Hodor
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22 Apr 2008, 5:02 pm

It's interesting, I'll give them that, but the positive effects will probably just be temporary, as with ECT. Which, by the way, does more harm than good in the long term.

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One in 150 children is diagnosed with autism each year and rates of diagnosis have increased sharply over the last two decades, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


Disease Control and Prevention?? To help those who are 'infected' with autism? :roll:


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just-me
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23 Apr 2008, 11:26 pm

magnets have a very good healing effect, have you ever seen those bracelets for sale that are made of magnets?

Anyways ,I read another article where they were doing the same thing for bi polar disorder and getting very promising results.



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24 Apr 2008, 10:22 am

just-me wrote:
magnets have a very good healing effect, have you ever seen those bracelets for sale that are made of magnets?

Yes, I have. I've also seen the independent tests, in which it has been demonstrated, repeatedly, that the only actual effect of wearing the magnetic bracelets/anklets/armbands/whatever is that the user's wallet becomes noticeably lighter for a short time. The user's health may be affected by the placebo effect, but there is no effect from the magnets themselves. (Which only makes sense - magnets powerful enough to significantly interact with biological systems would also require either a massive structure, or a great deal of power, and would mostly just interfere with neural transmission. The magnet bracelets and such are harmless, but not useful, either.)


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monty
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25 Apr 2008, 2:02 pm

matsuiny2004 wrote:
It sounds more like a therapy to me


It is a type of therapy. Transcranial magnetic therapy is also being researched for treating depression (Medical University of South Carolina did some of the pioneering).

This is different from ordinary magnets, and from ECT (shock therapy). The power of the magnetic field is much lower than from ECT and does not have any of the apparent side effects. It is much higher than from a bipole magnet. Also, the fields can be tuned to hit particular areas of the brain, or at different frequencies that have different effects.