Institute of Psychiatry aims at getting breakthrough in autism treatment

Parent mediation for autism spectrum disorder in South Asia programme followed

Rawalpindi

Pakistani researchers from Institute of Psychiatry and WHO Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, Education and Training at Benazir Bhutto Hospital in collaboration with Human Development Research Foundation and Universities of Manchester and Liverpool have adapted a parent-led autism therapy and tested it successfully in Pakistan and India.

The Institute of Psychiatry in collaboration with its partners is aiming at getting a breakthrough on autism treatment in Pakistan and India, the countries where the treatment gap for developmental disorders is nearly 100 per cent due to lack of resources and specialists care, said Head of the Institute of Psychiatry Professor Dr. Fareed Aslam Minhas while talking to ‘The News’ on Sunday.

He said that autism is considered as one of the world’s biggest mental health problems affecting an estimated one per cent of the world’s population and causing a severe effect on the social development of children. In developing countries like Pakistan and India, there had been almost no specialist services for the children with the problem.

He stated that researchers from Institute of Psychiatry collaborated with experts in India to adopt a cost-effective parent-led intervention that is delivered to the parents and not to the child. The approach of the intervention is to train parents on strategies which they would apply to their child with developmental disorder and can interact better with their autistic child. The resulting PASS (parent-mediated intervention for autism spectrum disorder in south Asia) programme was taught to non-specialist health workers in Rawalpindi, Pakistan and Goa, India who then worked with parents of the 65 autistic children who were recruited to the trial, explained Dr. Minhas.

He said the Institute of Psychiatry and its partners are aiming at improving treatment for an estimated five million children living with Autism or like developmental disorders in the region.

He said that Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry Dr. Ayesha Minhas, Professor Atif Rahman from University of Liverpool and Professor Jonathan Green of University of Manchester worked hard on developing the PASS technique that is needed to be adopted to help autistic children in South Asia, where the countries are facing lack of resources, trained staff and poor access of patients to medical centres.

According to Dr. Minhas, the study is the first to have adapted a treatment that can be delivered by non-specialist health workers.

He said the PASS programme has been done through a randomized controlled trial and the findings have great scientific strength. He said after 12-week period, the children undergone the parent-led therapy were assessed using recognized methods. The parents were shown to have learned from the intervention, and the children were more likely to initiate communication with their parents, he added.

He added the clinical academics from Human Development Research Foundation (a not-for-profit research organisation), University of Liverpool, UK and Institute of Psychiatry Rawalpindi Medical College have taken up the challenge of developing a sustainable service delivery model to support the families of children with developmental disorders including autism.

He said the PASS task-sharing approach is being implemented under supervision of researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry and the definitive trial of this research is in progress in as many as 30 union councils in Rawalpindi and a huge breakthrough is expected next year.