Research needs to be conducted on the efficacy of treatment with stereotactic radiation therapy, especially on the long-term. However, radiotherapy is still being studied as a form of treatment if neurosurgery is too dangerous due to the location of the cavernoma. Genetic researchers are still working on determining the cause of the illness and the mechanism behind blood vessel formation. Clinical trials are being conducted to better assess when it is appropriate to treat a patient with this malformation and with what treatment method. Additionally, long-term studies are being conducted because there is no information related to the long-term outlook of patients with cavernoma. An existing registry known as The International Cavernous Angioma Patient Registry collects information from patients diagnosed with cavernoma in order to facilitate discovery of non-invasive treatments. References
Further reading
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Alliance to Cure Cavernous Malformation [1]"It is our mission to inform, support, and mobilize those affected by cavernous angioma and drive research for better treatments and a cure. We do this by developing and executing strategic, creative, high-return interventions as a model for rare diseases." Cavernoma Alliance UK, "Mission: To work to find a cure for cavernoma, improving treatment and supporting those affected by cavernoma along the way."
However, the terms and therapies often are applied to children who are maltreated, particularly those in the foster care, kinship care, or adoption systems, and related populations such as children adopted internationally from orphanages.Outside the mainstream programs is a form of treatment generally known as attachment therapy, a subset of techniques (and accompanying novel diagnosis) for supposed attachment disorders including RAD. These "attachment disorders" use diagnostic criteria or symptom lists different from criteria under ICD-10 or DSM-IV-TR, or to attachment behaviors. Those with "attachment disorder" are said to lack empathy and remorse. Treatments of this pseudoscientific disorder are called "Attachment therapy". In general, these therapies are aimed at adopted or fostered children with a view to creating attachment in these children to their new caregivers. The theoretical base is broadly a combination of regression and catharsis, accompanied by parenting methods which emphasize obedience and parental control. There is considerable criticism of this form of treatment and diagnosis as it is largely unvalidated and has developed outside the scientific mainstream. There is little or no evidence base and techniques vary from non-coercive therapeutic work to more extreme forms of physical, confrontational and coercive techniques, of which the best known are holding therapy, rebirthing, rage-reduction and the Evergreen model. These forms of the therapy may well involve physical restraint, the deliberate provocation of rage and anger in the child by physical and verbal means including deep tissue massage, aversive tickling, enforced eye contact and verbal confrontation, and being pushed to revisit earlier trauma.