[Adta] Autism brain research & dmt

[Christine Hopkins]

Hi Barbara--

Thank you for posting the NIH press release about autism research relating to amygdala size, fear of social interaction, particularly of eye contact and impaired nonverbal social behavior in early childhood.  It has really got me thinking.

(1)  Impaired nonverbal social behavior is a symptomatology for which dmt would be perhaps the best modality of treatment.
(2)  A research protocol similar to Davidson's that included a dmt treatment group and a control group would be a great way to test this hypothesis.  It would be important to determine how much and how often dmt treatment would be needed to get results and how long lasting the results are.

I have a big frustration with all this wonderful brain research because I don't see researchers, theorists or clinicians publishing about the crucial impact human interactions patterns in early childhood have on permanent physical brain structure, except for Daniel Siegel.  Siegel is teaching parenting classes based on attachment and attunement, trying to make a dent in American parenting culture.  Do you know of any other published work about this?  I guess Bessel van der Kolk's work would be the best example on the clinical side.

For example, some, probably milder, forms of autism might be prevented if parenting patterns were more empathic and attuned.  I know a psychoanalyst in Seattle who treated an autistic child and the child improved so much that the diagnosis was discarded.  This is the piece about repeated patterns of experiences in relationships, including in psychotherapy, affecting brain function and probably physical brain structure.

And it was great to meet you at the conference after enjoying and benefiting from your posts so often!

Christine Hopkins
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.adta.org/pipermail/adta/attachments/20061209/aec06c94/attachment.htm