A few years ago, when Vancouver autism specialist Vikram Dua faced a parent's query about a trendy alternative therapy for a child, he wasn't the best listener.
"I used to rail against it or argue with parents," he recalls of the discussions about restricted diets or the use of supplements.
The result: He tended not to see those families again. "And it didn't help the kids very much."
Now, Dr. Dua is less combative. He explains that of the more than 1,000 treatments out there, one or two might, indeed, work. He just doesn't know which ones work and for which kids.
Instead, Dr. Dua, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at BC Children's Hospital, asks three questions. Is the treatment safe? Will it suck time and resources from others that may help more, such as behavioural or speech and language therapy? And, in general, does it fit the parents' world view?
If the answers suggest no potential for harm, Dr. Dua says, "Go forth and propagate. And if it works, come back and tell me about it."
Call it the Jenny McCarthy Effect. The former Playboy bunny has followed up her public crusade against the vaccines she believes caused her six-year-old son's autism with a new book that details how she "beat" that autism with a restricted diet, metal detoxification and vitamins.
Ms. McCarthy's crusades aren't going unnoticed; she's made various media appearances and landed a recent cover story in US Weekly.
In response to Ms. McCarthy and other advocates, doctors who treat children with autism say, their bedside manner has had to evolve.
Autism experts have seen first-hand that parents of autistic children are particularly vulnerable to the lure of upstart remedies. While diagnoses can now be made as young as 18 months of age, there is often a long wait for expensive behavioural therapies. This leaves parents anxious to search for others.
Autism, a developmental disability known to affect brain function, resulting in difficulties with communication and social interaction, and unusual patterns of behaviour, has attracted some romantic notions, Dr. Dua says. "There is an Awakenings phenomenon," he says, referring to the 1990 movie in which Robert De Niro's character is briefly stirred out of a catatonic state. . "If only there was some way to unlock this child, unlock the mystery. There's this search for a panacea, for the one thing that's going to fix it."
Traditional medicine hasn't been able to offer parents a great deal of hope. When parents say the studies on medication aren't that strong, "it's not an unreasonable point," he says.
Darlana Mancuso, a mother living in Burnaby, B.C., has seen an increased openness in the 2½ years she's been seeking help for her son, Christian.
Their first pediatrician didn't think anything was wrong with Christian, now 5, even though he was displaying major behavioural problems. She now has a "dream team" of occupational and speech therapists, doctors and pediatricians who are willing to discuss everything from testing a few dietary changes to pulling back on his vaccinations.
"I've noticed in the last little while doctors now, I don't know what it is, they're not talking their talk any more," she says. "Some of them are saying that the milk, the gluten and the sugar - removing them is helping out."
Wendy Roberts, a developmental pediatrician who specializes in autism at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children and at Bloorview Kids Rehab, says she's not only entertaining queries about diet and supplements, she's been inspired by these parents to start her own research on the effects of supplements such as Omega-3s, which have been shown to have some positive effects on children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
