PHOTOBIOMODULATION THERAPY

This pioneering study by Gerry Leisman, Calixto Machado, Yanin Machado, and Mauricio Chinchilla-Acosta published has examined the efficacy of low-level laser therapy, a form of hotobiomodulation, for the treatment of irritability associated with autistic spectrum disorder in children and adolescents aged 5–17 years. Methodology: Participants received eight 5-min laser light applications to the base of the skull and temporal areas with the Erchonia® (active or sham) across a 4-week period: two applications per week, 3–4 days apart at the investigator’s test site. A pulsed laser of 635 nm with a power output of 15 mW and a red 635 nm LED were used as treatment and placebo, respectively. Twenty-one of the 40 participants received eight 5-min procedures administered to the base of the skull and temporal areas across a 4-week period. All the participants were evaluated with the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC), with the global scale and five subscales (irritability/agitation, lethargy/social withdrawal, stereotypic behavior, hyperactivity/noncompliance, and inappropriate speech), and the Clinical Global Impressions (CGI) Scale including a severityof-illness scale (CGI-S) and a global improvement/change scale (CGI-C). Results: The study found that low-level laser therapy could be an effective tool for reducing irritability and other symptoms and behaviors associated with the autistic spectrum disorder in children and adolescents, with positive changes maintained and augmented over time. Discussion: The authors of the study suggest that synchronous activity in the neocortex may be critical for sensory integration and is associated with integrated perceptual experiences (Ding et al. 2017), selective attention (Salo et al. 2017), and working memory (Griffiths and Kumar 2017), all of which are part of the myriad deficits reported in ASD. Moreover, the authors of the study emphasize the importance of the integrity of functional connectivity in the default mode network (DMN), a network active during inactive resting states, and in cognitive functions linked to the ASD-related social dysfunction. In accordance with well-established literature on photobiomodulation, the authors of the study hypothesize that the use of low intensity red and near-infrared (NIR) light, supports improvement in dysfunctional neuronal activity. LLLT promotes cell and neuronal repair and brain network rearrangement in many neurologic disorders identified with lesions in the hubs of default mode networks, which might explain the study’s findings in relation with ASD.