Autism is an increasingly prevalent disorder, which has increased from a rate of approximately 1 in 2000 in the 1970’s and 80’s to a rate of approximately one in 68 today [1][2]. With this massive increase in prevalence, the majority of therapeutic initiatives in the contemporary world have focused on pediatric autism. However, large numbers of adults with autism do live in our society, with relatively few therapeutic resources for the improvement and maintenance of their lives, aside from allopathic approaches using psychopharmacology.
CEASE therapy, is a particularly successful approach for treating Autism, and is now increasingly utilized throughout the world. Developed by Tinus Smits in the 1990’s and 2000s [1], it is a therapy that (contrary to much of its perception in the homeopathic community) removes factors that prevent classical Homeopathy from fully curing autism.
While many cases of full recovery from autism solely with Homeopathy exist and have been well documented, many practitioners such as Smits, found that many children with autism did not recover fully. They may respond partially, or even not at all to indicated remedies. Smits began correlating this non response to damage from a number of factors, such as drug exposure in utero and vaccinations. Using isopathics as well as nutritional supplementation, Smits began removing the obstacles represented by those toxic exposures, with great success. He dubbed this therapy CEASE or Complete Eradication of Autistic Spectrum Expression. Since his death, CEASE has been further refined by his students.
The Majority of published CEASE cases focus on children. CEASE however can be done with individuals of any age. Knowing this gap, I decided to publish this case, which is still in progress of an adult CEASE case of mine.
I began treating this case quite unsuccessfully, with drainage and classical Homeopathy. However the addition of CEASE therapy and Nutrigenomics dramatically improved the progress of this case, allowing for much growth in the personality of the patient, who we will call Brian.
Initial Pre-CEASE treatment
Brian is a 29 year old male who was referred to my practice for his behavioral issues in August of 2013. His main presenting complaints were aggressiveness and spaciness. He would become quite aggressive with his care staff, sometimes tearing up paper or becoming physically violent and throwing objects. He was also very spacy, not being fully aware of himself or his surroundings sometimes for weeks at a time.
At birth, he was delivered with forceps, but developed normally up until his third DPT vaccination, after which he developed seizures, which required increasingly severe medications to control them. At this time his parents recognized a developmental delay, and Brain was diagnosed with Autism. He was educated in the separate disability school system then in a place at Calgary. After graduating he began a supported day program, where he was having issues with aggressiveness.
He was medicated with Risperidal, Citalopram, Apo-trihex, Valporate, Carbamazepine and PRN Lorazapam and Ziploc.
When I observed Brian, I found him to be quite distractible, and unable to have any kind of internal dialogue. He seems to be an outside observer to his own life, referring to himself as Brian, rather than me or I, and referring to his mother by her first name rather than by mom, mother or mommy.
He was currently on the SCD diet, which had made him much less spacy than before, with episodes occurring about once every 3 weeks, rather than weekly.
My initial assessment using Scholten’s mineral table was that Brian was in the second series, with no clear boundaries between him and the outside world. I chose Borax because of my experience previously prescribing the remedies in patients with boundary issues. I prescribed one drop per day of Borax 6c, succussed with each dose[2].
I also added in one drop per day of Silver Linden as a phytogen [3], to drain Brian’s brain of toxicity and open the emunctories in preparation for a future ( generic) DPT isopathic detoxification.
Two months later at a followup, Brian’s mother reported that he ended up becoming so spacy after each dose of both the Borax and the Silver Linden, that he was even less able to function in daily life. His hyperactivity also increased considerably. I thought this indicated a wrong prescription, and switched his remedy to Helium LM-1, one drop daily, and added in some Sanum remedies to help modulate his bowel flora. This resulted in no real improvements as well.
Having just begun to look into the fascinating new developments in Nutrigenomics I ran a 23 and me test of Brian, then ran the raw data through the program found on mthfrsupport.com. I found Brian to be heterozygous for the MTHFR667T mutation as well as other mutations in CBS, NOS and CBS and a number of possible mitochondrial malfunctions. I immediately started Brian on 1 mg per day of Methylfolate.
An immediate improvement occurred with a decrease in aggressiveness, and Both Brian and his mother noticing a subtle energetic shift. His mother then became very interested in nutrigenomics, and we removed a few items high in sulfur from his diet based on his CBS mutation, observing a further improvement.
At this point I became interested in CEASE and travelled to Vancouver in March of 2014 to become trained and certified by Kim Kalina [4]. This training impacted me profoundly, giving a new and very wonderful method of approaching challenging cases such as Brian’s.
I had Brian’s mother compose a detailed timeline of Brian’s medical interventions. In addition to the DTP shot which precipitated his autism, other notable episodes included his MMR shot at 18 months (after which he again displayed a number of seizures along with a fever), a hospitalization due to a roseola infection at 2 years (again with high fever and seizures) and the use of both phenobarbital and phenytoin as seizure control medications.
We began CEASE by placing Brian on both activated charcoal (560 mg per day) and Ascorbyl palmitate (500mg per day). Due to my past failures with constitutionals and the lack of a clear picture, I decided to hold off constitutional treatment for now. We began CEASE therapy with DPT 30x in July 2014.
Almost immediately Brian began reacting. He had a recurrence of a number of older behaviors which had previously ceased and began to become more creative and imaginative. He had a great deal of nasal discharge, which continued intermittently.
We stayed at 30x until August 2014, when Brian’s mother noticed that his progress had stalled. We then increased the potency to 30c. Brian again developed nasal discharge and over the next few months began actively scheming, lying and deceiving people, which he had never done before[5]. She also reported a number of new words being used, particularly descriptive terms. Brian also began developing a sense of self, referring to himself as me and I rather than as Brian, and began referring to his mother as mom, rather than by her name. He also began to recognize changes in his state, knowing consciously when he was sick rather than simply losing coherence and acting aggressively and erratically.
I felt at this time that Brian’s cerebral toxicity was the main factor which was preventing us from detoxifying more quickly. I added in Silver linden phytogen again, however not much effect was noticed from this.
At our follow up in December 2014 Brian’s mother noted that in the past few months Brian had an increase in seizures, which had not responded to an increase in his dosage of valproate, as prescribed by his neurologist. Given Brian’s use of phenobarbital I suspected that this symptom was a sign of the next substance which he needed to clear.
By February Brian had finished CEASE with DPT. We then began CEASE therapy with Phenobarbital 30c.
Brian’s nasal discharge again resumed. Brian’s mother reported in a recent email that Brian was experiencing further cognitive growth. She recounted an incident in which Brian saw a cartoon where a bird was sucked into a vacuum cleaner. Brian then asked whether or not the bird died. Brian never before had understood the concept of death.
Brian’s mother reported him still having problems with impulsivity and control of himself. This, as well as his cerebral inflammation pointed me towards a constitutional for the first time since 2013. I will likely begin Brian on Bufo rana in the very near future [6].
I emailed Brian’s mother recently, and asked her to summarize Brian’s progress since beginning CEASE. She replied with the following email:
Hi Paul,
We have noticed the following changes:
1) More independence – wanting to do things on his own, i.e carry a wallet and cell phone, shopping, make food or snacks.
2) Larger vocabulary, more expressive and descriptive.
3) He seems to have a larger sense of reasoning- i.e. he was watching a TV show where a bird was sucked up into the vacuum, and he said, “is the bird dead?” Cause and effect- he has never demonstrated this in the past.
4) Behavior unchanged – still likes to tease and cause trouble. He seems to really be planning his actions even more. Hope this changes.
5) Physical- he really experiences a lot of drainage ( upper respiratory infections), as we move through the program.
Conclusion:
We see several notable themes with Brains case:
- CEASE therapy in Brian took a notably long time. His progress was slower than I had observed in cases with children. This likely is due to Brian being older and less vital than many CEASE patients.
- However, we do observe some profound cognitive gains. Brian has so far experienced a growth of self identification (given his increased use of first person pronouns), considerable growth in language, decreased aggression and out of body sensations, and a great deal of growth in terms of comprehension over the course of one year.
- The lack of behavioral change. I suspect this is because the behaviors are a reflection of Brian’s inner state, which itself should hopefully resolve with the addition of a constitutional remedy.
I don’t know how far we can take Brian. He is nowhere near the end of his healing journey. Where this journey ends with Brian, I cannot say. It is not as likely that Brian will experience as full a recovery as some of the dramatic cases of CEASE therapy seen in many younger children. But I do think we have much further to go together, and he can grow considerably further.
I will update this case as it progresses!
I would like to express my gratitude here to Brian, his mother and their family for the privilege of letting me help them through their health challenges and lives.
Footnotes
1. Smits, T. Autism Beyond Despair: CEASE Therapy. 2010. Emryss.
2. For more information on this style of prescribing, please see De Schepper. “Achieving and Maintaining the Simillimum”.
3. For more information on phytogens, please do see Gueniot, G. & Ledoux, F. Phytoembryotherapy: The Embryo of Gemmotherapy. Amryss.
4. If you’re reading this Kim, my great gratitude for your teaching!
5. This is quite a common symptom of cognitive development in individuals recovering from Autism.
6. I am currently authoring a systematization of the animal material medica, similar to Scholtens Periodic Table and Yakirs Table of Plants. Animals do also have a very clear structure which is demonstrated throughout evolution, and which is visible in the Homeopathic provings of particular animal species.
The amphibians, while a very poorly represented group, do have a few clear characteristics, such as impulsivity, issues with sexual appropriateness (not present in this case) and issues with the assertion of the self. Bufo rana also covers a number of neurological and developmental symptoms, making it a logical choice for this patient.
This project will be published as a series of e-books along with a chart, over the course of the next few years, until it is complete. For more information on this I would encourage you to visit my website www.tableofanimals.com
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For more information go to Homeopathy Treatment of Autism
[1] Doheny, K. Autism Cases on the Rise; Reason for Increase a Mystery. Online Document accessed March 26th 2015.
[2] CDC. Autism Spectrum Disorder. Online Document Accessed March 26, 2015. http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html
This is shameful. You should not call yourself a doctor. You are not a doctor. You are a naturopath, and anybody who charges money for homeopathy is a fraud.
Using it to treat autism this way is just cruel and abusive.
How can something that gets results be shameful? Look at all the orthodox medical drugs this patient was on, were they helping him? Of the two medical modalities used in this case, which one got results? You just appear to be a sore loser. By the way, the author is a doctor, he’s a Doctor of Naturopathy, an ND. Why are you so invested in what kind of medicine a person chooses to use? The patient was already using orthodox medicine and not getting any better. What would you have him do?