Autism Doc Faces Discipline Over Treatment Methods

[HuckleB]

http://chicagoist.com/2011/10/14/autism_doc_faces_discipline_over_tr.php

{i]"A Naperville doctor who was a part of a 2009 Tribune investigation of alternative treatment methods for autism has had a complaint filed against her by Illinois regulators.

The Trib reports that Dr. Anjum Usman may be subject to discipline by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation over her controversial treatments of the disorder including vitamin supplements, chelation to remove heavy metals from the body, and oxygen therapy. The complaint called the treatments an "extreme departure from rational medical judgment," and that "none been proven to influence the course of autism." The department is asking that Usman's medical license be suspended or revoked. The IDFPR regulates nearly all licensed professionals in the state, such as doctors, veterinarians, funeral home directors, and even nail technicians.

The Trib's science and medical reporter Trine Tsouderos has been bringing to light quack autism treatments for several years at the paper, including a feature article about the supposed "miracle drug" Lupron, off-label use of the supplement OSR#1, and other alternative autism treatments that Tsouderos calls "uncontrolled experimentation."

Usman was part of the focus of a 2009 report co-written by Tsouderos and Patricia Callahan, who said at the time, "We base our treatment protocols on the lab results, parent reports and physical examination of our patients -- nothing out of the ordinary in the practice of medicine."

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FYI.

[Odin2005]

1. Anyone who uses Chelation Therapy on autistics should be in jail.

That shit is dangerous.

[MineralMan]

2. Genuine Autism is such a Devastating Thing

that many parents of autistic children will try anything in their attempt to help their child. Like cancer, autism often leads people to alternative treatments that may not only not work but be extraordinarily harmful to the patient and cause parents to not get treatments that work. With any terrible illness, there are always those standing on the sidelines touting their wares. Much harm is done by this sort of quackery that takes advantage of the desperation of people for whom effective treatment is very difficult to find.

If people who fall for this are lucky, the treatment does no further harm. That is not always the case, though.