Doctors sued over ‘dangerous’ autism treatment

[HuckleB]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-autism-therapy-lawsuit-20100304,0,5271734.story

"The father of a 7-year-old Chicago boy who was diagnosed as a toddler with autism has sued the Naperville and Florida doctors who treated his son, alleging they harmed the child with "dangerous and unnecessary experimental treatments."

James Coman and his son were featured last year in "Dubious Medicine," a Tribune series that examined risky, unproven treatments for autism based on questionable science.

The defendants — family-practice physicians Dr. Anjum Usman of Naperville and Dr. Daniel Rossignol of Melbourne, Fla. — are prominent in the Defeat Autism Now! movement, which promotes many of the alternative treatments the Tribune scrutinized. Both have spoken to groups of parents at autism conferences and trained other physicians in their methods.

Coman alleged in Cook County Circuit Court that Usman and Rossignol prescribed "medically unnecessary and unjustified" chelation treatments, designed to force the body to excrete toxic metals, even though the child did not suffer from heavy metal poisoning. The treatments carry a risk of kidney failure, the lawsuit alleges.

..."


----------------------------------


Of course, the other questions remain: Where is the Florida Board of Medicine? Where is the AMA? Where is the Federation of State Medical Boards?

Why are so many MDs allowed to pursue such practices?

[msongs]

1. and why did the parents go along with this treatment? nt

[HuckleB]

5. They want to see change in their kids, and these doctors claim expertise.

Following are links to a series on such treatments in the Chicago Tribune. It tells a harrowing story, and gives some hope for the future of journalism, IMO.

Autism treatments: Risky alternative therapies have little basis in science
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-autism-treatments-nov22,0,1396079.story?page=1

Autism treatment: Success stories more persuasive to some than hard data
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2009/nov/22/health/chi-autism-treatments-sidebar-nov22

Questionable treatments for children with autism
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2009/nov/22/health/chi-autism-blurbs-1122nov22

[MineralMan]

2. More quackery and woo.

For further examples, scan the rest of the DU Health forum.

[cry baby]

3. The DAN protocol helps many autistic kids (in varying degrees).

I worked for a DAN doctor and his success rate was good. Most kids didn't do the chelation - but the parents that opted for that treatment (done elsewhere) always had a heavy metals test done beforehand that showed heavy metals in the body.

Parents of autistic children travel from all over the southwest to see him. All these parents are advised that there are risks for every procedure and they are enumerated for them clearly.

Another really effective treatment was to find out what foods the kids were sensitive to. Almost all the autistic kids that saw the doctor I worked for had a pretty long list of food sensitivities. Gluten sensitivity was present in most of those kids. When parents modified the diet, the behavior problems started getting better. That may actually work in non-autistic people, too.

[MineralMan]

4. Perhaps you can point me to some double-blind studies that

demonstrate the effectiveness of this treatment. I will go at once and read them. Thanks.

[cry baby]

9. You know, MM, I'm not a doctor. I just know that I saw improvement in some of those kids.

Their parents did, too.

I'm just relaying my experience in seeing these kids over a two year span of time.

I don't mean to burst your bubble or anger you. To be fair, some of the kids did not improve.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

13. I think you're a good example of what's wrong with these situations

You were trained to see improvement, and when you did see improvement you immediately provide anecdotal evidence about its "effectiveness". Because you're close to the situation you didn't stop to think that these kids would have improved anyway, with or without these DAN treatments. Desperate parents, looking for any tiny incremental change, also provide anecdotal evidence, and combined with your eyewitness account, BINGO there is "proof" that it works.

There aren't any scientific data that these methods work (in fact there is quite a bit of evidence that several procedures, like chelation, are harmful), but inexpert anecdotal "proof" is given of their effectiveness. That keeps the vicious loop operating.

[cry baby]

17. You are insinuating that I'm stupid enough to be led in a manipulative way into what I saw.

Sorry - that just isn't the case.

If you can prove that these kids would have improved anyway, then I'd like to see your evidence. My evidence is that some of the parents saw great improvement coinciding with the beginning of the DAN protocol...some saw a little progress, some saw none.

I think I'm safe in believing the parents about how their children were coming along, rather than you, who judge me as part of some "problem" from a message board.

[Book Lover]

20. Another questions: how many is "some"?

I only want to engage with effective therapies for my child. Do you remember how many kids saw improvement, how many didn't, etc?

[cry baby]

23. I cannot give you an accurate number. The dr sees 20 autistic children per week.

I think he probably has 200 autistic patients. I talked to roughly half of these parents about how their kids were doing. I worked in the front office, so I had good access to them while they waited for their appt time. Most of those said there was improvement to varying degrees.

Certainly most of the patients didn't go through the procedures like chelation. Most went the way of improving the diet through elimination of food sensitivities, taking vitamins that were specific to each case, taking care of intestinal problems that seem to occur in most of the autistic kids.

The doctor I worked for was an integrative doctor in family medicine. He got great results in his non-autistic patients by using some alternative treatments mixed with western medicine.

Western medicine is completely wonderful, but there are alternatives that can be helpful, too. I'm not sure why there is such animosity toward an alternative that a parent of a child deems worthy of continuing. They know it isn't a cure, it's just merely helpful.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

21. No, you incorrectly inferred something that was not implied

I guess I wasn't clear in my point and that is that we have a serious problem with anecdotal evidence being passed off as "proof". I'm not questioning what you or those parents did or didn't see - I believe what you say. But, there isn't yet any scientific evidence that any of these protocols work, and pretending they do based on anecdotes actually hinders efforts to get real answers to the problem.

[MineralMan]

14. Anecdotes. Your claims are based on anecdotal evidence,

which demonstrates that you're discussing woo. I knew you did not have any double-blind studies to point me towards. Why did I know that? Because I've looked, and there are no such studies.

Evidence-based medical care works. Woo doesn't. It does work, however, to fatten the wallets of quacks who prey on people's fears and false hopes.

There's nothing wrong with relating anecdotal information. There is a great deal wrong with making direct statements to the effect that some treatment works. Without proper studies, there's no way for you to know whether it works or not. Too many variables.

[MineralMan]

7. Oh. Please don't bother to send me to Dr. Mercola's site.

[HuckleB]

11. Testimonials: Listening to People’s Stories

http://photoninthedarkness.com/?p=120

<1> Autism is a syndrome of developmental delay, not developmental stasis - as I’ve said nearly a million times before. Children will continue to develop whether they are treated or no.

<2> Like their typical peers, autistic children develop in spurts, with periods of rapid change followed by longer periods of little or no change. This provides opportunities for “therapies” to appear to work. This is true for “mainstream” and “alternative” therapies, alike. The difference is that “mainstream” (evidence-based) therapies are tested using lots of subjects, along with placebos and blinded observers, which helps “zero out” random events.

<3> Studies have shown that as much as 19% of autistic children will “move off the autistic spectrum” before their seventh birthday. Thus, children “recover” or even get “cured” spontaneously. Even if some people don’t like to hear that.

<4> What happens to parents whose kids don’t get better? For the most part, they are encouraged - by other parents and by the practitioners themselves - to “keep trying”. They are also encouraged to pay close attention and to “think positively” - but they are never encouraged to doubt.

[cry baby]

18. All of this may be true in some cases, but when improvement coincides with the beginning

of the DAN protocol, then the improvement may, indeed, be due to some of the things in the protocol.

The doctor I worked for has an autistic child that improved on the DAN protocol. That was before he had even thought to treat children with the protocol.

[HuckleB]

22. Sorry, if the protocol worked, it could be noted outside of a placebo effect.

But it's not even been shown to be a placebo. The doctor you worked with is a quack.

[Book Lover]

19. Did you ever hear *how* parents got their kids to eat different foods?

My autistic son will go hungry rather than eat a food not on his "list". Did you ever hear from these parents their successful strategies to get their kids to eat the non-gluten-based foods?

[TheMadMonk]

6. But, but, but... EVERYONE knows it's the mercury in vaccines.

For the sarcasm impaired.

:sarcasm:

[MineralMan]

8. Yah, but mercary is one a them heavy metals, right?

Or is it silvery water. I get all confussed. :rofl:

[laconicsax]

10. On a related note...

If, as homeopaths claim, water is magic, then wouldn't silvery water be even more magic and consequently, a superior base for homeopathic remedies? At least there'd be something in them that wasn't just tap water...


Come to think of it, shouldn't mercury be an effective homeopathic treatment for autism? After all, likes cure likes.

[MineralMan]

15. Metallic mercury, when taken internally, pretty much passes

right through the digestive tract unchanged. It's not really metallic mercury that is a problem. Water-soluble compounds of mercury, along with mercury vapor, are the source of virtually all mercury poisoning.

In fact, at one time, liquid mercury was used as a laxative. I have an old medical book from the 19th century that recommends it as a last resort laxative.

We've come a long way.

Note: I know your post was a joke, but I'm using it as a medium to present a bit of trivia.

[TheMadMonk]

16. Something similar was a game amongst children in Aust.

(and possibly elsewhere)

Take one chicken, pour a teaspoon of mercury down its gullet and get you hands or a cup under the other end fast enough to catch it.

[Fridays Child]

12. If the FL medical board is like the AZ board...

...it's nothing more than a rubber stamping entity for whatever doctors want to do.