Treatment of mental illness: autism

Autism, also known as autism or loneliness disorder, is a representative disease of generalized developmental disorder. Autism is also a mental illness. I have collected some information about the treatment of autism for you, welcome to refer to it, and wish you health!

Autism treatment of mental illness

Autism treatment principles:

① Early detection and early treatment. The earlier the treatment age, the more obvious the improvement;

② Promote family participation, so that parents can also become collaborators or participants in the treatment. Children themselves, child care doctors, parents and teachers, psychologists and society should all participate in the treatment process to form a comprehensive treatment team;

(3) Insist on a comprehensive treatment training program that focuses on non-drug treatment, supplemented by drug treatment and promotes each other;

④ The treatment plan should be individualized, structured and systematic. According to the patient's condition, the treatment varies from person to person, and the treatment plan is adjusted at any time according to the treatment response;

⑤ Pay attention to children's health and prevent other diseases while treating and training;

⑥ Persist in treatment and persevere.

Some ideas about the treatment of autism;

There is no specific drug treatment for autism. Early diagnosis and early intervention can improve the prognosis of autism, so it is generally believed that the younger the age, the better the effect, but so far there is no age cut-off point, in fact, some patients have improved when they are older.

② Many countries in the world, especially developed countries, have established many special education and training curriculum systems for autism. The above main training methods have their own advantages and disadvantages, and there is no evidence that one therapy is obviously superior to the other. At present, various methods tend to be integrated with each other.

③ Due to the lack of specific therapy for autism, there are still hundreds of alternative therapies, which lack evidence-based medical evidence and should be used with caution. A small number of autistic children without special training and treatment have the possibility of self-improvement, and the efficacy claimed by some therapies may be related to this.

Treatment of autism

Before 1980s, autism was generally considered as an incurable disease. Since 1987, Lovaas reported that the application of behavioral analysis therapy was successful? Cure? After 9 cases of autistic children, many countries in the world (mainly the United States) have successively established and developed many autism education and training therapies or courses. Most founders of therapies or courses claim that their therapies have achieved remarkable results, but the effects of some therapies are exaggerated.

Helfin et al. classify various autism therapies into the following four categories. (1) Therapy based on promoting interpersonal relationship: including floor time therapy established by Greenspan and RDI therapy established by Goustein; (2) Skill-based intervention therapy: including Picture Exchange System (PECS) and Discrete Experiment Training (DTT); (3) Physiological-oriented intervention: including sensory integration training, auditory integration training, detoxification treatment and diet treatment; (4) Comprehensive therapy, treatment and education (TEACCH) and applied behavior analysis (ABA) for children with autism and related communication therapy belong to this category. The following is a brief introduction to the common interventional therapy.

1TEACCH

TEACCH is a comprehensive education method for autistic children founded by Schopler of the University of North Carolina. It is an autism training course that has been highly praised in Europe and America. This method aims at the defects of autistic children in language, communication and sensory movement, and the core is to improve their understanding and obedience to the environment, education and training content. This course designs personalized training content according to the ability and behavior characteristics of autistic children. The training content includes children's imitation, accumulated exercise, perceptual ability, cognition, hand-eye coordination, language understanding and expression, self-care, social communication and emotion. Emphasize the special arrangement of training ground or family furniture, toys and related items; Pay attention to the arrangement of training procedures and visual clues; Make full use of language, posture, tips, labels, charts, words and other methods in teaching methods to improve children's understanding and mastery of training content; At the same time, behavior correction techniques such as behavior reinforcement principle are used to help children overcome abnormal behaviors and increase good behaviors. Courses can be conducted in relevant institutions or at home.

2ABA

1987 Lovaas reported that a group of 19 autistic children received ABA treatment and intervention for 2 years. Results Nine children basically recovered, and other children also improved in different degrees. This report caused a sensation. Since then, many researchers have repeated ABA and achieved varying degrees of success. It is reported early that ABA has a good effect on high-functioning autism. At present, it is considered that this therapy has a good effect on all kinds of children with pervasive developmental disorders. Lovaas' research object is mainly autistic children around 3 years old, which is an important factor to achieve good curative effect. However, ABA is still considered to have high application value, even for older autistic children. ABA adopts the principle of behavior shaping to positively strengthen and promote the development of various abilities of autistic children. Traditionally, the core of ABA is task decomposition technology. The typical task decomposition technology has four steps: the trainer gives instructions, the children's reaction, the reaction to the children's reaction, and the pause. Specifically including:

(1) task analysis and decomposition;

(2) Intensive training of decomposition tasks, that is, only one decomposition task is trained within a certain period of time;

(3) Reward the completion of (positive reinforcement) tasks, and each task must be reinforced. Strengthening is mainly food, toys and verbal or posture praise, and it gradually retreats with progress;

(4) Prompting and downplaying, giving different levels of prompting or help according to children's development, and gradually reducing the prompting and help with the proficiency of the learned content;

(5) Intermittent, which requires a short break between two decomposition task trainings. Training requires personalization, systematization, strictness, consistency and scientificity. Ensure that the treatment should have a certain intensity, 20-40 hours a week, l-3 times a day, 3 hours each time. Modern ABA technology is gradually integrated with other technologies, emphasizing emotional interpersonal development.

3.RDI and floor time

With the in-depth study of the neuropsychological mechanism of autism, the defect of theory of mind is gradually considered as one of the core defects of autism. The so-called theory of mind defect mainly refers to the lack of ability of autistic children to speculate on other people's psychology. Therefore, children are characterized by lack of eye contact, inability to form common attention, inability to distinguish other people's facial expressions, inability to form social reference ability, inability to share feelings and experiences with others, and inability to form emotional ties and friendship with relatives. In view of this, Gutstein established? Improve children's psychological understanding of others? RDI and Gutstein believe that the law and order of normal children's interpersonal relationship development is: eye gaze-social reference, interaction-coordination-sharing emotional experience-enjoying friendship. Based on this, he designed a training program for autistic children, which was led by parents or trainers, including various interactive games, such as eye gaze, facial expression discrimination, hide-and-seek and so on. Two people with three legs? Throw, catch, etc. In training, the trainer or parents are required to have rich and exaggerated expressions without losing the truth, and their intonation is cadence. Gutstein claims that the RDI method has achieved remarkable success.

Compared with RDI, Greenspan's free-time training system also focuses on interpersonal relationships and social interaction, but unlike RDI, in free-time training, teachers or parents decide the training content according to children's activities and interests. In training, parents or teachers cooperate with children's activities, and at the same time constantly create changes, surprises and difficulties in training, and guide children to establish problem-solving ability in free and happy time, and then develop social communication ability. This kind of training has higher requirements for parents or teachers. At present, this method is also highly respected in the United States.

4. Sensory integration training

Sensory integration training therapy was founded by Ayers in the United States. At first, it was mainly used to treat ADHD and learning disabilities in children. Autistic children generally feel abnormal, so this method is also widely used to treat autistic children. This therapy mainly uses skateboards, swings, balance beams and other game facilities to train children. It has been reported that it has a certain effect on reducing hyperactivity and increasing language in autistic children. In addition, therapies similar to sensory integration training include auditory integration training, music therapy, chiropractic therapy, squeezing therapy, hug therapy and touch therapy. The efficacy of sensory integration training therapy is controversial abroad and has not been recognized by mainstream medicine.

5. Drug therapy

At present, there is no specific drug to cure autism, but the following drugs may improve some symptoms of the disease and be beneficial to education and training. Specifically including:

(1) Haloperidol (0.5mg-4.0mg/ day), Sulindazine (12.5mg-50mg/ day) and Sulpiride (100 mg-400mg/ day) are commonly used antipsychotics. The first two can reduce hyperactivity, impulsiveness, self-talk, self-injury and rigid behavior, and stabilize children's emotions; Sulpiride can improve autism and withdrawal, make children active, increase speech and improve mood. The above drugs should be taken from a small dose, and gradually increase according to the improvement of symptoms and adverse drug reactions. At present, it is reported that risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine and aripiprazole can also improve some symptoms of the disease, but this aspect needs further study and discussion.

(2) antidepressants. These drugs can improve the stereotyped repetitive behavior of diseases, improve mood and relieve obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Chlorpropionamide (25mg- 150mg/ day), sertraline (25mg- 150mg/ day) and fluvoxamine (50-200 mg/ day) can be selected. This medicine should also be taken from a small dose, and the adverse drug reactions will gradually increase according to the improvement of symptoms.

(3) Central stimulant or clonidine is suitable for children with attention disorder and ADHD. Please refer to the relevant contents in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder for medication methods.

(4) Drugs that improve and promote the function of brain cells are related to mental retardation.

(5) Vitamin B6 and magnesium have been reported. Large doses of vitamin B6 and magnesium may improve some symptoms of the disease, but further research and determination are needed in this regard.

6. Biological agent therapy

BNP digital biological nerve repair technology is based on the principle of biological gene regulation. With the help of precise digital navigation instruments, the damaged parts are digitally simulated, and then the precise magnetic pole ultrasound is used for precise positioning, so that the biological protein gene can act on autistic children, improve brain blood circulation, nourish and repair damaged brain cells through blood and lymphocyte circulation, balance brain neurotransmitter function, and have a brand-new brain pathway to awaken children's perception ability, enhance information feedback function, and make children get out of autism.

The role of family in autism education and training

The education and training of autism is not entirely a medical problem. Family's socio-economic status, parents' mentality, environmental or social support and resources all have an impact on children's coping. Through comprehensive education and training, supplemented by drugs, the prognosis of autistic children can be significantly improved, and a considerable number of children may acquire the ability to live, study and work independently, especially those with Asperger's syndrome and high-functioning autism. Three principles should be adhered to in the process of education or training:

(1) Tolerance and understanding of children's behavior;

(2) correction of abnormal behavior;

(3) The discovery, cultivation and transformation of special abilities. Training should be family-centered, while paying attention to making full use of social resources, setting up day training and educational institutions, and spreading relevant knowledge to parents while training children are the main measures for autism education and treatment at present. Parents need to accept the facts, overcome psychological imbalance, and properly handle the relationship between children's education and parents' life and work. With love, patience and perseverance as the driving force, actively participate in children's education, training and treatment activities, and establish long-term consultation and cooperation with doctors.