TMS Therapy

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I just finished reading "Switched On" by John Elder Robison (it's a great memoir and I highly recommend it) about his experience with using TMS to treat his autism. It was experimental at the time (and I still think it is, at least in terms of autism treatment) and it had downsides and benefits for Robison (for example, he got better with eye contact and thinking about the feelings of others, and other autistic people in the study reported being better at reading facial expressions and understanding sarcasm. However, Robison divorced his wife due to direct effects of the TMS affecting their relationship, and he felt disappointed that he had temporarily gained many social skills only to lose them.) Does anyone know of current TMS studies for autism? I would definitely like to participate in them if they became available. I know TMS has been FDA approved for depression, but I believe it's for when depression doesn't respond to standard medication, so that wouldn't apply to my experience with depression.

(clicky)use of TMS in Autism Spectrum Disorders

I'm likely to undergo TMS therapy soon, but it's for depression.

From the paper, it sounds like they don't know what parts of the brain to target for ASD.

That’s what it seems like to me, they are not 100% sure what area of the brain causes ASD so they don’t know what part of the brain to target. It might be a while before it’s as advanced and FDA approved like it is for depression.

short of TMS, Strattera [Atomoxetine] worked for this aspie brain

To me, this sounds very hopeful. It might actually help some autistics with social interactions.

Would be great if scientists find out how to make the most of this technique and make a therapy that involves a combination of TMS and social activity at the same time.

But at the moment we don't know how effective this is (long-term as well), side effects, what aspects can be helped or who can be helped (many variations of autism).

I really, really hope that this is not just some overblown anecdotal evidence to sell the book and vague studies. I hope this has some real treatment potential.

I heard that (90 percent sure its the same guy) guy talking about his experiences and book on Terri Gross's show "Fresh Air" on NPR a year or so ago. You can probably still get that program on the Fresh Air website,( I linked to it myself here on a post on WP shortly after I heard it). Quite interesting. This treatment (kinda like a cat scan for your head) actually in a sense, dare I say it.."cured" his lifelong aspergers. At least temporarily it did. Dramatically and suddenly caused him to be more NT.

But it also messed up his life. He suddenly understood things folks said to him years before - viscious sarcasm that went over his before- and cost him friendships. The experience was quite a mix of roses and thorns.

...It's - interesting - that someone who wrote an " Aspies pride " book should try to " be less Asperger's " ...

_________________
Renal kidney failure, congestive heart failure, COPD. Can't really get up from a floor position unhelped anymore:-(.
One of the walking wounded ~ SMASHED DOWN by life and age, now prevented from even expressing myself! SOB.
" Oh, no! First you have to PROVE you deserve to go away to college! " ~ My mother, 1978 (the heyday of Andy Gibb and Player). I would still like to go.
My life destroyed by Thorazine and Mellaril - and rape - and the Psychiatric/Industrial Complex. SOB:-(! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!

...I mean, perhaps someone would get all " Say it loud!! ! " on him...like " My brother, what are you doing, wearing skin lightening cream and straightening your hair??! " ...But, you never know how someone else feel
" Curing ", I think of one of the X-Men movies, where there's a mutation curing ray, and someone struck with it is immediately de-mutantized...What would you do then? And if it's only temporary...I remember an Issac Asimov story, where Earth people do not have an extra sense for listening to music, and an Earth man manages to take on that sense for an hour or so, and it's amazing...but after it's gone and he has a normal Earth man's senses, he realizes what he temporarily had and lost, and now, " he will always be blind ", realizing what he doesn't have . He'd kind of built up being a " professional Aspie "...now what does he have ?
I'm a failure in life, certainly materially speaking . I am crippled, have massve back pain, I'm homeless ...I had hoped that, with those reading, etc., I

items I splurged on some months back I could get a little place and settle down & read and have furniture alright for someone who's crippled, but authority figures just want to push me into a board-and-care home I guess, I'll perhaps never go to college ,I was raped , I lost so many things over the years, I spent my 21st birthday in a state loony-bin , I was pumped full of fucking-me-up drugs...will " being less Aspie " get me the things that I lost ? Or even repair them ? I tend to think not .

_________________
Renal kidney failure, congestive heart failure, COPD. Can't really get up from a floor position unhelped anymore:-(.
One of the walking wounded ~ SMASHED DOWN by life and age, now prevented from even expressing myself! SOB.
" Oh, no! First you have to PROVE you deserve to go away to college! " ~ My mother, 1978 (the heyday of Andy Gibb and Player). I would still like to go.
My life destroyed by Thorazine and Mellaril - and rape - and the Psychiatric/Industrial Complex. SOB:-(! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!