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Transcranial Photobiomodulation for the Treatment of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A Retrospective Study

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) face several challenges due to deficits in social function and communication along with restricted patterns of behaviors. Often, they also have difficult-to-manage and disruptive behaviors. At the moment, there are no pharmacological treatments for ASD co...

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Autores principales: Pallanti, Stefano, Di Ponzio, Michele, Grassi, Eleonora, Vannini, Gloria, Cauli, Gilla
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9139753/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35626932
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9050755
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author Pallanti, Stefano
Di Ponzio, Michele
Grassi, Eleonora
Vannini, Gloria
Cauli, Gilla
author_facet Pallanti, Stefano
Di Ponzio, Michele
Grassi, Eleonora
Vannini, Gloria
Cauli, Gilla
author_sort Pallanti, Stefano
collection PubMed
description Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) face several challenges due to deficits in social function and communication along with restricted patterns of behaviors. Often, they also have difficult-to-manage and disruptive behaviors. At the moment, there are no pharmacological treatments for ASD core features. Recently, there has been a growing interest in non-pharmacological interventions for ASD, such as neuromodulation. In this retrospective study, data are reported and analyzed from 21 patients (13 males, 8 females) with ASD, with an average age of 9.1 (range 5–15), who received six months of transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) at home using two protocols (alpha and gamma), which, respectively, modulates the alpha and gamma bands. They were evaluated at baseline, after three and six months of treatment using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), the Home Situation Questionnaire-ASD (HSQ-ASD), the Autism Parenting Stress Index (APSI), the Montefiore Einstein Rigidity Scale–Revised (MERS–R), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the SDAG, to evaluate attention. Findings show that tPBM was associated with a reduction in ASD severity, as shown by a decrease in CARS scores during the intervention (p < 0.001). A relevant reduction in noncompliant behavior and in parental stress have been found. Moreover, a reduction in behavioral and cognitive rigidity was reported as well as an improvement in attentional functions and in sleep quality. Limitations were discussed as well as future directions for research.
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spelling pubmed-91397532022-05-28 Transcranial Photobiomodulation for the Treatment of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A Retrospective Study Pallanti, Stefano Di Ponzio, Michele Grassi, Eleonora Vannini, Gloria Cauli, Gilla Children (Basel) Article Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) face several challenges due to deficits in social function and communication along with restricted patterns of behaviors. Often, they also have difficult-to-manage and disruptive behaviors. At the moment, there are no pharmacological treatments for ASD core features. Recently, there has been a growing interest in non-pharmacological interventions for ASD, such as neuromodulation. In this retrospective study, data are reported and analyzed from 21 patients (13 males, 8 females) with ASD, with an average age of 9.1 (range 5–15), who received six months of transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) at home using two protocols (alpha and gamma), which, respectively, modulates the alpha and gamma bands. They were evaluated at baseline, after three and six months of treatment using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), the Home Situation Questionnaire-ASD (HSQ-ASD), the Autism Parenting Stress Index (APSI), the Montefiore Einstein Rigidity Scale–Revised (MERS–R), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the SDAG, to evaluate attention. Findings show that tPBM was associated with a reduction in ASD severity, as shown by a decrease in CARS scores during the intervention (p < 0.001). A relevant reduction in noncompliant behavior and in parental stress have been found. Moreover, a reduction in behavioral and cognitive rigidity was reported as well as an improvement in attentional functions and in sleep quality. Limitations were discussed as well as future directions for research. MDPI 2022-05-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9139753/ /pubmed/35626932 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9050755 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Pallanti, Stefano
Di Ponzio, Michele
Grassi, Eleonora
Vannini, Gloria
Cauli, Gilla
Transcranial Photobiomodulation for the Treatment of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A Retrospective Study
title Transcranial Photobiomodulation for the Treatment of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A Retrospective Study
title_full Transcranial Photobiomodulation for the Treatment of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A Retrospective Study
title_fullStr Transcranial Photobiomodulation for the Treatment of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A Retrospective Study
title_full_unstemmed Transcranial Photobiomodulation for the Treatment of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A Retrospective Study
title_short Transcranial Photobiomodulation for the Treatment of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A Retrospective Study
title_sort transcranial photobiomodulation for the treatment of children with autism spectrum disorder (asd): a retrospective study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9139753/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35626932
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9050755
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