Aronoff Eyal, Hillyer Robert, Leon Michael
Mendability, LLC, 915 South 500 East, American Fork, UT 84003, USA.
Center for Autism Research and Translation, Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, 2205 McGaugh Hall, The University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-4550, USA.
Neural Plast. 2016;2016:2734915. doi: 10.1155/2016/2734915. Epub 2016 Sep 18.
We have previously shown in two randomized clinical trials that environmental enrichment is capable of ameliorating symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and in the present study, we determined whether this therapy could be effective under real-world circumstances. 1,002 children were given daily Sensory Enrichment Therapy, by their parents, using personalized therapy instructions given over the Internet. Parents were asked to assess the symptoms of their child every 2 weeks for up to 7 months. An intention-to-treat analysis showed significant overall gains for a wide range of symptoms in these children, including learning, memory, anxiety, attention span, motor skills, eating, sleeping, sensory processing, self-awareness, communication, social skills, and mood/autism behaviors. The children of compliant caregivers were more likely to experience a significant improvement in their symptoms. The treatment was effective across a wide age range and there was equal progress reported for males and females, for USA and international subjects, for those who paid and those who did not pay for the therapy, and for individuals at all levels of initial symptom severity. Environmental enrichment, delivered via an online system, therefore appears to be an effective, low-cost means of treating the symptoms of ASD.
我们之前在两项随机临床试验中表明，环境富集能够改善自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的症状，在本研究中，我们确定了这种疗法在现实世界环境中是否有效。1002名儿童由其父母按照通过互联网提供的个性化治疗指导，每天接受感觉富集疗法。要求父母每2周评估一次孩子的症状，最长持续7个月。意向性分析表明，这些儿童在广泛的症状方面总体有显著改善，包括学习、记忆、焦虑、注意力持续时间、运动技能、饮食、睡眠、感觉处理、自我意识、沟通、社交技能以及情绪/自闭症行为。依从性好的照料者的孩子更有可能在症状上有显著改善。该治疗在广泛的年龄范围内均有效，并且对于男性和女性、美国和国际受试者、付费和未付费接受治疗的人以及初始症状严重程度处于所有水平的个体，所报告的进展相同。因此，通过在线系统提供的环境富集似乎是一种治疗ASD症状的有效且低成本的方法。
