The need to deal with the repetitive, stereotypical patterns of behavior, and aversion to change became clear to us during the course of our original research. Our treatment model does require the child to wear a transparent hood during treatment (such as shown here and elsewhere in the website).

We did encounter a little early resistance or distress from the first three subjects. Despite that, they settled into the treatment remarkably quickly over just a few days. Although adaptation was quick we decided to create a pre-treatment familiarity approach to help reduce the perception of change for our subjects which has been successful.

Microbaric® Oxygen Therapy (MBO2) is delivered using an FDA approved head tent that fully covers the head and seals around the neck. Right out of the box, this device can seem daunting for anyone let alone someone with autism. Our aim was to enable the subject to become familiar and “comfortable” with the head tent by the time we started the treatment. Prior to starting each pilot study we had an assessment period, typically 8 weeks, during which we gathered the baseline assessment data that would enable us to monitor change. About four weeks prior to commencement of treatment we sent a head tent assembly to the family. The instructions were for Mom, Dad and any siblings to sit with the subject for about 30 minutes each evening and pass the head tent and neck seal around, putting the tent part on their heads, and playing with both parts while smiling and laughing to make it seem more like a toy than a tool.

Our treatment protocol calls for treatment to be delivered in one hour sessions, five days per week. We found that following the period of familiarisation our subjects readily allowed us to put the tent on their heads. For the first treatment we never got beyond 30 minutes before the subject wanted to stop. By the second treatment we typically got 45 about minutes and in all five studies we did the full 60 minutes by the third treatment. This is a therapy not a form of punishment, so we always stopped immediately on demand. On reaching the 60 minute mark, our subjects had earned their “frequent flier badge” and treatment typically moved ahead without further problems. This approach will be part of our standard operating procedure going forward.

First, it is necessary to understand that Microbaric® Oxygen Therapy (MBO) is a very different treatment model which has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with hyperbaric oxygen therapy. That said, between the partners we do have more than 90 man years experience in the hyperbaric field – and can tell you the negative advice and warnings and opinions put forward by some are not only without foundation, they are, in fact, plain wrong. There are many papers in the scientific literature that report on positive outcomes achieved using hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO2) in autism. Nevertheless, for autism there are several issues with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy - and none of them relate to the efficacy of the treatment. They are:

• Cost : In the U.S and other countries we have checked HBO2 is not reimbursable for autism. This means treatment costs must be borne by the family. Most facilities offer therapy sessions in blocks of 40 with 60 minute treatments provided five days per week over a three month period. Aside from the logstics of visiting the clinic every day, it is a relatively high priced therapy, with individual treatment sessions costing $150 -250, meaning the 40 treatments block will cost you between $6-10,000. Further – our experience of the treatment periods needed to deliver maximum impact extend well beyond 3 months and up to 18 months which makes hyperbaric treatment untenable for most in both cost and accessibility.

• Availability : Hospital-based chamber facilities will not offer treatment for autism, so you are typically reliant on private operations. There are not many private facilities, which means the nearest one may be some distance from you. If you are considering trying HBO2 don’t forget to factor in daily travel to/from the facility and perhaps hotel costs into your budget. In some cases families have brought their loved ones from another country. Even if you live close to a chamber bear in mind you will be working on a schedule set by the facility operators. Only approved clothing, usually provided by the facility, will be (should be) allowed in the chamber so allow for pre/post dressing time and the treatment time in your planning. Note: If the facility allows patients to enter the chamber in their street clothes – please go somewhere else! It is not difficult to see how accessing treatment can easily require you to commit 50% of your day and more if you are the caregiver.

• Safety and Risk : We believe safety and risks to treatment are far and away the most important issues for your consideration because they directly involve you and your loved one. HBO2 is routinely used to treat some profoundly sick patients across a variety of acute and chronic problems, that are often unresponsive to other clinical interventions. On the other hand, you want to treat your loved one who has a neurological condition but is otherwise probably healthy.

Be aware, every exposure to pressure in a hyperbaric chamber involves risk. The most common one, typically referred to as barotrauma, is the pain that can occurs as the chamber pressure is increased like the feeling you get when descending in an airplane, or while diving. Pressure is exerted on the tympanic membrane (ear drum) that separates the outer ear canal from the middle ear. This gets extremely painful very quickly and, if not managed properly, can result in a ruptured ear drum(s) that will require urgent medical attention. It is sometimes difficult to teach even so-called normal people how to equalise the pressure in their ears as the chamber is compressed, imagine how you are going to teach your autistic loved one to do it.

Finally, there is an increased risk of fire in a hyperbaric chamber due to the atmosphere in the chamber being hyperoxygenated, so cleanliness is critical and only approved clothing and toys should be allowed inside.

You can read more about these issues and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, along with how our Microbaric® oxygen therapy model overcomes them, in our case report paper published in Autism-Open Access which is available at https://www.longdom.org/open-access/evolution-and-preliminary-testing-of-a-hyperoxic-therapy-for-autism-spectrum-disorders-2165-7890-1000233.pdf

This is not intended to be a lecture on oxygen physiology but let us give you a short overview. Firstly – Oxygen is quite literally the fuel of life and it’s availability is critical to the survival of every living thing on our planet. Every cellular and neurological function in our bodies requires it and we can survive only minutes without it. But like everything, too much of a good thing can cause issues – so yes, oxygen can be toxic in two ways – Acute and Chronic. It is, however, critical that this is put into perspective.

• Acute oxygen toxicity is seen when an individual is exposed to pressure in a chamber while breathing a high concentration of oxygen, typically 100%. The higher the chamber pressure and oxygen concentration in the breathing gas the more quickly a seizure will occur. Seizures manifest in a manner that is remarkably like an epileptic grand mal seizure. The excess oxygen induces abnormal electrical activity in the brain which leads to loss of consciousness that usually lasts 10-20 seconds and is followed by violent muscle spasms which can last for several minutes. Note – someone who has not been trained to manage a seizure in the chamber will want to do exactly the wrong thing and rapidly depressurise the chamber which will almost certainly result in serious injury to the patient. The treatment pressures and times used in hyperbaric chambers for treating ASD do not normally pose a threat of seizure. Such situations are rare in properly managed hyperbaric facilities.

• Chronic oxygen toxicity, is the result of breathing higher than normal concentrations of oxygen for long periods. This can occur at normal atmospheric pressure in, for example, an Intensive Care Unit when patients are given high concentrations of oxygen, and at increased atmospheric pressures in hyperbaric chambers. The onset and degree of the toxicity will vary with the concentration of the gas used and the duration of exposure. In addition, individual susceptibility to toxicity means there are significant variations in time to onset of symptoms, which can range anywhere between 12 to 24 hours. The initial effect is soreness and tightness in the chest which causes discomfort, coughing, and difficulty in beathing. If it is not addressed, symptoms worsen with damage to the air sacs (alveoli) in the lungs and the development of pneumonia-like congestion that interferes with respiratory function and can lead to respiratory distress and even death. That said, it should be noted that there are many thousands of people with COPD and other respiratory conditions who breathe 90+% oxygen on a daily basis for hours at a time around the world.

It is very important to understand that neither of these problems will occur with Microbaric® Oxygen Therapy which does not use either the pressure or treatment times necessary to induce any of the symptoms described above.

No, Microbaric® Oxygen Therapy (MBO2) is very definitely NOT the same as Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy(HBO2) or even so-called mild Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy (mHBO2). We have addressed many of the technical differences in answering other questions. So, we will trust you to review those and focus on this response which describes the differences we believe are most important for you to know.

(Reminder : A critical difference is that hyperbaric oxygen therapy requires the subject to be pressurized in a whole-body chamber and receive oxygen, see question 2 for more)

MBO2 is designed to be delivered in the home at a fraction of the cost of other treatments, by the caregiver. In each of our pilot studies this was Mum. There are several immediate benefits, you have no travel issues or costs to contend with, you have no scheduling issues to organize your life around, you do not need to take time off work to provide the therapy except by choice. Our MBO2 protocol requires treatment to be delivered for one hour per day, five days per week, it doesn’t matter what treatment time or days of the week you choose. You can even change these on a daily basis to fit your lifestyle and commitment to other family members. You just need to complete five hours of treatment in any seven day period for the duration of the treatment program. It is worth noting that in our pilot studies, once the treatment program had been underway for a reasonable period, a short break in the schedule, say for a family vacation, did not seem to disrupt progress.

This is an excellent and very reasonable question to ask. In most countries, when oxygen is administered for a medical purpose it is considered to be a drug and requires a prescription. This is the reason we need to do the additional trials we talk about on our website in order to gain regulatory approval.

It is commonplace for the side effects listed for just about any drug currently on the market to be longer than the list of indications for which it can be prescribed. Some of these side-effects are serious and may even be life-threatening, even when the drug is taken at the prescribed dose. It has never been more important to thoroughly read and understand the information supplied with the prescription, it could save your life or that of a loved one.

In comparison, oxygen has few side effects and none that we are aware of when it is used in accordance with our MBO2 treatment protocol. We had only one minor adverse event reported to us over the years (2010-2014) during which were conducting the pilot trials. We received a call from the mother of one of our subjects shortly after he had commenced the treatment program to ask if eye irritation was a problem. We referred her to her family practitioner who diagnosed dry eye and told her to use over-the-counter drops, which she did. The problem resolved quickly and never recurred, it was never an issue with any of the other trial subjects. We conducted an engineering analysis of the head tent design and concluded it was related to internal flow characteristics that could cause the incoming gas to blow directly into the subject’s eyes. We have addressed this in the delivery system we intend to use following regulatory approval.

Our experience with Microbaric Oxygen Therapy (MBO2) to date is that the changes achieved are a function of treatment over time. As long as our subjects were receiving their daily treatments they kept improving. The two who received treatment over about 18 months got to a point where further improvement would have been difficult to track. They were 12 and 14 years old respectively with starting ATEC scores of 101 and 82 and decreasing to 7 and 10 on cessation of treatment. We have followed them for more then 7 years and have seen no regression even though they have both become young men.

Please read our published case study for more information and data charts on this in Autsim- Open Access - https://www.longdom.org/open-access/evolution-and-preliminary-testing-of-a-hyperoxic-therapy-for-autism-spectrum-disorders-2165-7890-1000233.pdf

We are finalising a significant research paper with our rationale and hypothesis on what we believe is happening. We will be publishing it soon - so check back as we will link to that paper once published.

If you'd like us to tell you when it's available, drop us a line via the Contact Us page.