美国国家公共电台 NPR After Other Options Fail, A Family Tries Medical Marijuana For Son With Autism

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

All right. Here in the U.S., a small but growing number of states are allowing medical marijuana to treat severe forms of autism. That's raised the hopes of some parents whose kids are autistic, but there's not a lot of science about the benefits and risks of marijuana use for these children. Lynn Arditi from the Public's Radio has the story.

LYNN ARDITI, BYLINE¹: It's midafternoon. And inside a raised ranch² in Rhode Island, Kristal and Chris's 13-year-old son is just getting home from school. We're not using the family's last name to protect their privacy.

CHRIS: How was school?

DYLAN: No.

CHRIS: Good.

DYLAN: No, bad.

ARDITI: Bad, Dylan says. He's a skinny kid with glasses, still small enough for his mom to wrap him in a bear hug if he gets out of control. He's had a lot of bad days. Dylan's parents review the daily reports the school sends home.

KRISTAL: So on this particular day, he had 27 instances of property destruction. He had 25 incidences of aggression³. He had only one self-injurious behavior, which is - that's pretty low. They just...

ARDITI: These behaviors all can be associated with autism spectrum⁴ disorders⁵. Symptoms can range from social awkwardness to a complete inability to communicate. In Dylan's case, his symptoms seem to defy treatment with traditional medicines.

KRISTAL: And you would think a lot of the medications he's been on would tranquilize a horse.

ARDITI: He's tried 16 different drugs, including Ritalin, Klonopin and Abilify.

KRISTAL: We gave him hundreds in dollars worth of berries and oils.

ARDITI: Nothing worked. Last winter, his behavior became so out of control he was hospitalized for nearly five weeks. But Kristal and her husband are finding reasons to be hopeful in online posts from other parents of autistic children.

KRISTAL: (Reading) Had to share this behavior chart from my son's...

ARDITI: Kristal is reading another mother's Facebook post about her autistic child's experience with medical marijuana.

KRISTAL: (Reading) The circled area highlights the major drop in behaviors. The difference between then and every single summer in the past and now - medical marijuana.

DYLAN: (Yelling).

ARDITI: So that's what brings them here today - to Dr. Levine's office in Providence⁶. Dylan starts to get agitated⁷, so his mother tries to soothe⁸ him with a hug.

DYLAN: No.

KRISTAL: Squeeze.

DYLAN: (Yelling).

KRISTAL: Squeeze.

ARDITI: Dr. Levine is a psychiatrist⁹ at Women & Infants Hospital who specializes in working with autistic children. And he's open to seeing if medical marijuana can help Dylan.

TODD LEVINE: In some ways, I think about it like cancer care. If your kid has cancer and you're failing chemotherapy and someone at NIH says, we have an experimental drug, you'll go.

DAVID AMARAL: The research basis for a lot of the hopes for using medical marijuana for autism - it's really minimal¹⁰.

ARDITI: That's David Amaral. He's research director of the MIND Institute at UC Davis in California.

AMARAL: I mean, there's very meager¹¹ clinical evidence, you know, for effectiveness.

ARDITI: Meager evidence because there have been no large clinical trials to determine whether marijuana or its compounds are effective or safe in treating children with autism. Amaral says some research has linked a chemical in marijuana that gets you high, known as THC, to an increased risk of developing psychotic disorders like schizophrenia. That's one reason why New York doesn't allow medical marijuana to treat psychiatric disorders.

AMARAL: Unless there's a clinical trial that's done in the right way and showing the safety, No. 1, of the drug and then the benefit of it, you know, it may be that families are wasting their time and maybe exposing their family members to, potentially, a dangerous situation.

ARDITI: That's not to say that marijuana doesn't hold promise for autism treatment. In fact, the first large-scale clinical trial in the U.S. is underway at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. But parents like Kristal and Chris aren't waiting. In their kitchen, Kristal shakes a medicine bottle filled with homemade marijuana oil.

KRISTAL: OK. Do your medicine real quick.

DYLAN: No, [expletive] you.

ARDITI: Kristal uses a plastic dosing syringe to draw out 25 milligrams of homemade cannabis-infused olive oil and squirts it into Dylan's mouth. And already, his dad Chris says, they feel like it's working.

CHRIS: I notice in the morning he's been a little easier to get along with. He's not as angry. He's not waking up angry. He's waking up and, you know, just getting ready and doing his thing and...

DYLAN: (Yelling) Dad.

CHRIS: ...And asking to get dressed and asking for breakfast where it was a lot of yelling and swearing and I hate you and this and that.

ARDITI: These reports from parents, along with input¹² from local doctors and a review of the medical literature, helped persuade Rhode Island health officials to add autism as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana. Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott is director of the health department.

NICOLE ALEXANDER-SCOTT: Severe autism in particular is not a curable disease, and there are very few other treatment options. So there is a compassionate¹³ care element to this.

ARDITI: Rhode Island's new regulations require doctors to first try the FDA approved medications and consult with a child psychiatrist or pediatric neurologist before approving children for medical marijuana. Besides Rhode Island, at least six other states have added autism to the list of debilitating¹⁴ conditions that can qualify patients, including children, for medical marijuana. For NPR News, I'm Lynn Arditi in Providence.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。

3 aggression   

n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害

参考例句：

• So long as we are firmly united, we need fear no aggression.只要我们紧密地团结，就不必惧怕外来侵略。
• Her view is that aggression is part of human nature.她认为攻击性是人类本性的一部份。

4 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

5 disorders   

n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调

参考例句：

• Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告，厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 providence   

n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝

参考例句：

• It is tempting Providence to go in that old boat.乘那艘旧船前往是冒大险。
• To act as you have done is to fly in the face of Providence.照你的所作所为那样去行事，是违背上帝的意志的。

7 agitated   

adj.被鼓动的，不安的

参考例句：

• His answers were all mixed up,so agitated was he.他是那样心神不定，回答全乱了。
• She was agitated because her train was an hour late.她乘坐的火车晚点一个小时，她十分焦虑。

8 soothe   

v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承

参考例句：

• I've managed to soothe him down a bit.我想方设法使他平静了一点。
• This medicine should soothe your sore throat.这种药会减轻你的喉痛。

9 psychiatrist   

n.精神病专家；精神病医师

参考例句：

• He went to a psychiatrist about his compulsive gambling.他去看精神科医生治疗不能自拔的赌瘾。
• The psychiatrist corrected him gently.精神病医师彬彬有礼地纠正他。

10 minimal   

adj.尽可能少的，最小的

参考例句：

• They referred to this kind of art as minimal art.他们把这种艺术叫微型艺术。
• I stayed with friends, so my expenses were minimal.我住在朋友家，所以我的花费很小。

11 meager   

adj.缺乏的，不足的，瘦的

参考例句：

• He could not support his family on his meager salary.他靠微薄的工资无法养家。
• The two men and the woman grouped about the fire and began their meager meal.两个男人同一个女人围着火，开始吃起少得可怜的午饭。

12 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。

13 compassionate   

adj.有同情心的，表示同情的

参考例句：

• She is a compassionate person.她是一个有同情心的人。
• The compassionate judge gave the young offender a light sentence.慈悲的法官从轻判处了那个年轻罪犯。

14 debilitating   

a.使衰弱的

参考例句：

• The debilitating disease made him too weak to work. 这个令他衰弱的病，使他弱到没有办法工作。
• You may soon leave one debilitating condition or relationship forever. 你即将永远地和这段霉运说拜拜了。