A good friend - adoptive mom - pointed me to an article published in the Pediatrics (the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics) last October about a young man with FAS who was treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The resulting improvements in this young man's cognitive abilities were profound. His verbal scores (including verbal memory) improved, his visual motor processing speeds improved, and impulsivity went down. The patient, a 15-year-old adopted from Russia as a toddler, had been found incompetent to stand trial in New Mexico for an offense, due to his neurocognitive state caused by the FAS.

The patient did 40 sessions of HBOT before he was retested and the great improvements were noted. The researchers then monitored over the period of the next six months and most of the improvements held steady -- with a regression noted in visual motor speed. But after an additional 33 sessions, the improvements continued.

As we're headed off for session # 19 of mild HBOT today (working toward 40 sessions, which seems to be the number at which many patients see their greatest gains), this was an encouraging report. LuLu doesn't have FAS, but tons of children adopted from international orphanages do. The prognosis for those children is often dim, with traditional wisdom saying that the condition is incurable. Here's a treatment that may offer hope.

The premise is that the brain is a dynamic organ, capable of replenishing itself. The "old school" belief that brain cells couldn't grow or rejuvenate has been dispelled. Grant over at the China Adoption blog posted about very interesting study in his blog: Neurogenesis and My Kids' Past.
While Grant was disturbed by the research and how it pertains to children with pasts of abandonment and trauma (and the report he cites does provide great insight into the struggles many of our children have with PTSD and trauma), the concept of neurogenesis offers great hope. Especially as scientists continue to find interventions that enhance our brains' abilities to regenerate themselves.

HBOT is a therapy worth looking into for neurological-based disorders. Low pressure (or mild) hyperbaric oxygen therapy (usually considered 1.7 or less ATAs - atmosphere absolute) has lower risk factors than other types of HBOT and has produced, at least in this case, some lasting cognitive gains and life improvements.

Image from iStockphoto.com