A Californian couple is convinced chelation therapy has alleviated the symptoms of their autistic son, who they believe got his autism from mercury in the thimerosal preservative in a vaccine. Chelation therapy is a lotion or pill that strips the body of such heavy metals, and when supposedly treating autism is typically combined with severe dietary restrictions plus multiple vitamin and mineral supplements. The story goes:
Jamie Handley was a happy, healthy baby who reached all his developmental milestones until he turned 18 months, his parents said. Then, he started spinning in circles and standing on his toes and no longer responded to his name. They were eventually told he was autistic
(Snip)
For Jamie's parents, the proof they need is in front of them: Jamie, now 3 years old and several months into treatment, is plump and playing baseball. His smile has returned.
"Every day brings small, steady gains," said Lisa Handley of Lafayette "Our life is filled with hope and the conviction that Jamie won't just improve, but will completely recover."
Hum. It seems to me there are several questionable things about this story.
The first is that there is no evidence of a link between mercury in vaccines and autism. More to the point, there is even evidence of no link:
Denmark mandated removal of thimerosal from vaccines in 1992. Even allowing for continued use of thimerosal-containing stocks of vaccine, Danish children were thimerosal-free by 1995. Autism prevalence in Denmark has risen in exactly the same fashion as in the United States and the United Kingdom.
(Study here.)
Secondly, as I reported Michael Fitzpatrick writing a couple of days ago, the symptoms of mercury poisoning and those of autism, are different.
The third puzzle is why is this kid’s autism linked to thimerosal? According to Quackwatch, manufacturers stopped using thimerosal in children’s vaccines in 2000, and so few children now under age four have ever received a thimerosal-containing vaccine. However, this child is stated to be three years old. He could have been one of the “few”, I suppose.
But the thing that really puzzles me is this. Even if thimerosal does cause the neurological damage related to autism, and even if chelation removes all the thimerosal, why would this child be getting better? Surely the damage has already been done? I could see that perhaps he wouldn’t get any worse, but how would he be getting better? If someone can explain how chelation therapy can repair neurological damage already done, I’d be really interested.
Why do this child’s parents think chelation made him better? Impossible to say, but incorrect initial diagnosis of autism springs to mind. Or maybe they are over-optimistic in reporting improvements. In any case, you can’t draw any conclusions from just one story or from anecdotes in general.
I guess it is good to stop putting thimerosal in vaccines if it means more parents will vaccinate their children. And if thimerosal is part of the problem, the numbers of cases should begin to drop. Alternatively, the Danish results may be replicated, and autism may continue to rise regardless. I don’t know what the answer is, but I’d bet autism will continue to rise. And I’ll also bet that won’t stop the peddlers of chelation and other dubious cures from continuing in business.
By the way, I’ve just noticed Orac today has an excellent and more detailed article on vaccines and autism. In addition, Autism Diva has more information on autism, mercury in vaccines, chelation therapy and related subjects than you can shake a stick at. A recommended read.
My personal, totally non-professional, answers to the three points you raised are;
More and more these days people look for simple external factors for anything that goes wrong. As has been pointed out on many reputable sites the age at which Autism hits coincides quite nicely with vaccines. The fact that vaccines used to use a preservative based on a readily identifiable poisonous material made it a whole lot easier to point,shout and lay the blame on someone elses doorstep
The power of coincedence, peoples ability to fool themselves, peoples inability to admit error and whenever the drug companies try to correct the issue with facts the Alties overwhelming cries "They would say that!" and "Conspiracy!".
Posted by: Mongrel | May 26, 2005 at 01:19 AM
I've seen this drum beaten often on some of the discussion lists I read, with citations from many of the same sources you mention. What gets me is the lack of causal link and the exploitation of the fear generated by these theories.
I'm the first one to grant that some alternative medicine approaches work. I'm also the first one to ask for scientific proof that backs the claims, and often that proof simply doesn't exist. Even with the lack of proof, people will spend buttloads of money in the vain hope that they'll experience the same miracles. It's sad.
Posted by: Serra | May 31, 2005 at 07:57 AM
As the fahter of an autistic boy, I too was pessimistic about all this holistic therapy stuff for autism. In addition, as a physician and prior research biochemist, I strongly believe in the scientific method. The problem is when you are confronted with the reality of autism, you are looking for the best solutions to help your child. Allopathic medicine offers absolutely no help except intensive behavior therapy and the tradional drugs which we all know can have at best, idiosyncratic reactions in children. No thank you! My son at the time of his diagnosis was nonverbal and almost in a catonic state. He has severe food allergies typical of a large majority of these children. Once these foods were removed, he became more active, but remained without speech. Today, after extensive various alternative therapies and extensive behavioral therapy[ABA], he is doing very well. He is verbal, exhibits normal pretend play, and other than a few oddities is a "normal" 5 1/2 year old. I am not going to enter into a debate of controlled double blind placebo controlled studies with anyone, these would be the ideal we all would like to see. But as we have added various new alternative treatments to my son's regimen, we see continuing improvements. Only when the medical and psychiatric community realize that the signs and symptoms attributed to autism can be amelorated or even eliminated will true progrees into this disorder be realized. You see, as long as insurance companies can reject paying for biochemical and other testing because autism is strictly a "psychiatic condition", a great many of these questions will remain unanswered and many of the children who would have benefitted from some of these interventions will remain in their special, tormented worlds.
Steven P. Bowman M.D.
Posted by: Steven Bowman | June 09, 2005 at 07:48 AM
Re: Steven Bowman
Anecdotes aren't evidence. I may not know much about autism, but as a skeptic, I do know a thing or two about how people can fool themselves. Double-blind testing reduces or eliminates those tricks our minds play on us.
If you think the treatments really work, you should be pushing for DBTs, rather than telling us an anecdote. Good luck getting the practitioners to try, though.
Posted by: BronzeDog | September 15, 2005 at 11:57 AM