Action For Autism

Chicago Tribune takes on Geiers’ junk science

Three years ago I wrote a post, Evidence of Pharm, which began, 

When scandalous events come to light the local community are always agreed. “We had no idea.” “He was such a pillar of the community.” “They babysat our children.” “They always gave generously to charity.” Etc.

So how will the good people of Silver Spring, Maryland, USA react when some of their own are finally exposed for using bad science to perform medical experiments on helpless children by pretending they have a cure for autism and persuading the parents to claim back the cost from their medical insurance?

It would be nice if they could read it first in the local press. So I am copying this to the editors of the:

Silver Spring Gazette: jgrbach@gazette.net
Silver Spring Voice: bond@takoma.com
Montgomery County Sentinel: editor-mc@thesentinel.com

All that follows is already in the public domain. All I have done is provide a summary. The editors can check it themselves or email me with any queries about sources.

The editors did not respond and the family firm of Mark and David Geier continued to perpetrate medical malpractice on children from their home in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. I wonder if these editors will respond to recent reports in the Chigago Tribune under the headlines, ‘Miracle drug’ called junk science and Physician team’s crusade shows cracks. The Chicago Tribune has done a great job, no doubt benefitting from the detailed research into the Geier’s activities published by Kathleen Seidel on her Neurodiversity blog. They have also unearthed some real gems themselves.

David Geier told the Chicago Tribune that leading autism specialist, Simon Baron-Cohen, supported ther use of Lupron to treat autism. Baron-Cohen told reporters that

“The idea of using it (Lupron) with vulnerable children with autism, who do not have a life-threatening disease and pose no danger to anyone, without a careful trial to determine the unwanted side effects or indeed any benefits, fills me with horror,”

When

Four of the world’s top pediatric endocrinologists told the Tribune that the Lupron protocol is baseless, supported only by junk science. More than two dozen prominent endocrinologists dismissed the treatment earlier this year in a paper published online by the journal Pediatrics.

Mark Geier responded by saying

that these are “opinions by people who don’t know what they are talking about,” saying the pediatric endocrinologists interviewed by the Tribune don’t treat autistic children and have not tried the Lupron treatment.

Lupron is a powerful drug that blocks the production of sex hormones. The Geiers use it on autistic children at ten times the dose used to treat the legitimate but rare condition of precocious puberty. It is also used to treat prostate cancer and to chemically castrate sex offenders. The long term effects on healthy children are unknown but are unlikely to be good. Its use on autistic children has no scientific backing. It is untested. It has no known therapeutic benefits and the potential for harm.

While Lupron might not have a significant impact on very young children — beyond the discomfort of daily injections — they said continuing treatment into the teen years is another matter. Lupron would put puberty on hold for those children.

A teenage boy “becomes a kid again,” said Dr. Alan Rogol, a pediatric endocrinologist at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. “He stops making testosterone. They don’t grow as well. It is not good for their bones. They would come to a dead stop.”

Meanwhile the Geiers continue to open clinics across the USA offering this “treatment” and are welcome speakers at fringe autism conferences. The lack of regulation for so-called alternative (aka quack) therapists in the USA makes it unlikley that the authorities will clamp down on their business. But the high cost of treatment is often borne by patients’ medical insurance. This has led one recent convert to the Geier’s Lupron treatment, Mayer Eisenstein, to have second thoughts.

Eisenstein said he would not treat teenagers with Lupron, citing insurance difficulties. “It is easy to explain a 4- to 5-year-old with high testosterone [to an insurer]. It falls under precocious puberty,” he said. “But with an 11-, 12-year-old, it becomes a big fight.”

Eisenstein has visibily cooled towards the Geiers during interviews with the Chicago Tribune over the last few days. The Tribune’s interest has unearthed some unsavoury aspects of his own medical practice which he doubtless would have preferred not to see featured in their pages under the headlines, Autism doctor: Troubling record trails doctor treating autism and Dr. Peter Rosi places blame on some parents for their babies’ deaths

Let us hope that the credit crunched insurance industry will do what the regulatory authorities have so far singularly failed to do. Their refusal to underwrite the Geiers’ junk protocol would protect children as well as their balance sheets. Meanwhile I hope that the Chicago Tribune’s reports will at last provoke the authorities into taking action to end the Geiers’ reckless endangerment of children.

One thing it will provoke is a frenzy of denial and accusations from the usual suspects over at Fromage of Autism (Yes. They are that cheesy) and the rest of the biomeddlesome autism fringe. But there is plenty of support for the Chicago Tribune as well. Here are a few to be going on with.

Left Brain Right Brain 
autism.change.org 
Photon in the Darkness
Respectful Insolence 
Mindless Mommy 
Neurologica
Chicago Moms 

Finally, do take the time to email the reporters at the Chicago Tribune and thank them for bringing this outrage to a wider audience.

pcallahan@tribune.com 

ttsouderos@tribune.com 

May 22nd, 2009 Posted by Mike | Lupron, Quackery, journalism | 3 comments