Autism and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: Unmasking the ‘Snake Oil’ Claims
The US Food and Drug Administration has published a warning for parents to beware of false or misleading claims about HBOT for treating autism.
I know a family who purchased a hyperbaric oxygen chamber for their home to treat their son with autism.
It was expensive. A cheap one costs about $10,000, and some go as high as $40,000. Desperate parents are easily swayed into purchasing the more expensive models.
They did their research, which meant they went to Google and absorbed the various snake oil sales pitches. When they saw doctors who touted scientific studies backing their dubious claims, they were convinced the therapy had promise.
It did nothing.
At first, the imagined improvements strengthened their belief that they had found the cure. Their son’s health appeared better; they noticed more eye contact, and they believed he was on the mend.
Confirmation bias works that way.
They told their friends and other parents about their great discovery and their hopes for a “cure” to their son’s autism.
However, when they asked the specialists and therapists who worked with their son regularly about his progress, none reported any significant change.
After a few months, their enthusiasm waned, and they began questioning whether or not this was a cure.
They maintained their belief that the procedure improved his health for many more months, mostly as a way of rationalizing they made the right decision in purchasing the hyperbaric oxygen chamber and putting their son in it daily.
However, the objective reality was ultimately undeniable.
They purchased the chamber to cure their son. They kept it because they believed it improved his health. When they finally accepted that it made no difference, they were shattered.
They were heartbroken for two reasons.
One, they believed erroneously that they could transform their non-neurotypical son into what they wanted him to be. Their dreams of a perfect son were revealed as illusions.
Two, they were embarrassed because they told so many people, and convinced other parents of the efficacy of a treatment that turned out to be snake oil.
They certainly were not alone. It’s a trap nearly every special needs parent falls into, me included.
See: Snake Oil and Autism: The Truth About Autism Cure Scams
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized environment. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a well-established treatment for decompression sickness, a condition sometimes caused by surfacing too quickly when scuba diving.
According to the Mayo Clinic, other conditions treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy include:
- Serious infections.
- Bubbles of air in blood vessels.
- Wounds that may not heal because of diabetes or radiation injury.
Notice that curing autism is missing from this list.
In a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber, the air pressure is increased 2 to 3 times higher than normal air pressure. Under these conditions, your lungs can gather much more oxygen than would be possible by breathing pure oxygen at normal air pressure.
This extra oxygen helps fight bacteria. It also triggers the release of substances called growth factors and stem cells, which promote healing.
Studies of hyperbaric oxygen therapy as a treatment for autism
A study from 2009 makes bold claims about helping autism, Hyperbaric treatment for children with autism: a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, controlled trial.
After 40 sessions, mean physician CGI scores significantly improved in the treatment group compared to controls in overall functioning (p = 0.0008), receptive language (p < 0.0001), social interaction (p = 0.0473), and eye contact (p = 0.0102); 9/30 children (30%) in the treatment group were rated as “very much improved” or “much improved”…
Sounds great, doesn’t it?
These snake oil salespeople promote this study.