Re: Brain Balance Any tried? Did it help?

[Guest guest]

We have recently had a Brain Balance center

open in our area, and I did a little research, trying to find out what they

were really about. I contacted several medical professionals, and these are a

few of the responses I received.

I do not know of this specific program, but it appears to incorporate a

number of unproven techniques (i.e. vestibular and vision therapies as well as

mirroring) and is based on an unproven neurologic hypothesis. A number of

programs such as these have espoused the disconnected hemisphere concept, but

it's not proven and certainly cannot be corrected. Some of the techniques

could be useful and are more universally applied, but there is little on the

site to be able to get enough detail, and these are available more widely and

for less of a glitz.

Obviously anything that claims to have a cure is suspect and the website

obviously presents that message in a subtle way. If it's that good, then

we all would know about it and recommend it.

I would steer clear, very clear of these people.

Dr. Theodore Sunder

Neurologist

I have looked into

this a bit and cannot find out terribly much. These centers all appear to

be largely based on the work of Dr. Melillo a man with a degree in

rehabilitation psychology. From my read, he has little expertise in these

areas and, from my perspective; this is largely a commercial enterprise and not

a particularly scientifically based. I have looked at nearly a dozen of the

centers and most are run by chiropractors or folks whose credentials are vague

or unknown. For the site in ville, there is no information about

the staff or programs. What is clear is that there is no science or

research to support what they are doing AND it is not at all clear what they do

L.

Leventhal, MD

Deputy Director

Kline

Institute for Psychiatric Research (NKI)

140 Old Orangeburg Road, Bldg 35

Orangeburg,

NY 10962

There is no study of this

treatment that I know of in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, and

certainly no evidence that this can cure autism. I have not read about it

enough to know whether it mimics cognitive or social skills interventions that

have been rigorously tested and are showing some promise (in which case it might

be capable of being helpful to some affected children), but I would want to

know more about exactly what they do before investing this kind of money in an

intervention.

JNC

N. Constantino, MD

Blanche F. Ittleson Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics

Director, Greenleaf Eliot Division of Child

Psychiatry

Washington University School of

Medicine

I also contacted Autism Speaks and our TAP

headquarters, plus several other agencies/doctors, and the results were the

same. Either they had never heard of it, or their thoughts echoed those above.

General consensus was that if it really did

‘cure’ Autism, then we would all know about it and so would the

population at large because of the triumphant news coverage! I talked to the

Brain Balance center director myself, and was given no useful information

whatsoever.

Obviously, any choices must be left up to the

parents. However, medically speaking, there is nothing known about this system

that would suggest the ‘treatment is worth the large financial outlay.

Fiona Plunk

Autism Resource Specialist

Center for Autism,

a program of UCP Heartland

2720 N. Center Street, Suite 200

P.O. Box 367

ville, IL

62062

(618) 288-2218

(618) 288-2249 - fax