– And I think anyone watching our show realizes that every child with autism presents differently, and how you treat them, and how they progress, it’s different. So, on our show we’re always thinking about new possibilities, and I want to introduce everyone to someone in our audience, Dr. Spencer Miller. Because Dr. Miller, can you tell us a little bit about a unique treatment that you offer that may have some hope, and certainly for a mom like Leah, who feels out of options, and it’s called MeRT. Can you tell me what that is and how it works? – Yeah, so MeRT is an emerging technology, it is experimental in some regards, that actually tries to reprogram abnormal, electrical signals in the brain.
We measure the electrical signals using a quantitative EEG, so it’s a very simple, common-used practice in neurology, where we put a cap on the head and look at where abnormal signals are coming from. We then turn around with that data and use these electrical signals to send back into the brain and try to attempt to re-attenuate or to modulate these brain signals. And the changes that we measure on these repeated EEGs, should correlate to behavioral changes. – And the child looked very comfortable, didn’t look like there was any pain associated with the procedure at all.
– Non-invasive, no medication involved with it, no pain. Sometimes, you can feel a little bit of an electrical pulse but it’s a mild, mild tap on the forehead. – How many treatments typically do you need to administer and how soon do you see results? And what have the results been? – Usually within the first couple of days, or weeks, you can start to see some benefits, some changes in their behavior. In general, we recommend about four weeks to six weeks of treatment.
The treatments are every day, 30 minutes or so. So they come to the clinic, get the stimulation, and go about their daily business. So, some children will have significant behavioral changes very early, some will take longer to get results. This is all new, and like I said, it’s kind of evolving over time.
– In your experience, what kind of results are you getting, in terms of the number of kids who are showing a benefit, a change in behavior? Do you have a number or percentage? – I don’t have a percentage with me, but for the patients that I have seen changes in behavior, it’s typically just exactly what you’re asking for. Language in general, is one of those things that seems to really be commonly changed. The way that they interact with their environment, their ability to change from, we have to go to the doctor’s appointment at seven today instead of eight, so we’re gonna have to change our schedules, so there’s not a meltdown in your car trying to go to a doctor’s appointment. The other thing that we hear a lot of parents talk about is the presence.
Which is not really a medical term but you know what I’m talking about. If your child is not there with you, even though they’re sitting right in front of you, you’re talking to them, there’s just this absence. And so, to be able to feel like your child is with you and listening or understanding you. So, we hear parents describe those type of behavioral improvements.
– And what potential side effects do you discuss with patients when you’re talking about this procedure? – So, the one that is the most feared, really, is not that big of a deal, however, we have to discuss it. It’s about a one in a 150,000 chance of having a seizure. It’s self-limited, a seizure is abnormal signals of the brain, we’re reprogramming the brain, so you can imagine that, that’s a potential. But, the seizure that would occur would be self-limited, you stop the simulation, the seizure goes away.
And I don’t know of any cases where treatment has been administered and caused a seizure that then results in epilepsy or the epilepsy syndrome, where you have continuous seizures throughout your life. So, I don’t know of that to be the case. – So, to me, really exciting.
Source: The Doctors
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