Renowned Doctor Has License Suspended for Giving Autistic Kids Sex-Drive Suppression Drug

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/6qMjJT/www.care2.com/causes/health-policy/blog/renowned-doctor-has-license-suspended-for-giving-autistic-kids-sex-supression-drug/

A well-known practicioner specializing in the treatment of autism, Dr. Mark Geier, had his license supsended by the Maryland Board of Medicine last week for injecting autistic teens with Lupron, a testosterone-blocking agent used for suppressing sexual desire in jailed sex offenders. Geier allegedly used the drug inappropriately to curb the sexual desires of "precocious puberty" in some of his teen patients, resulting effectively in a sort of chemical castration. The Maryland board ruled Geier's practices amounted to quackery that "endangers autistic children and exploits their parents."

Investigation into Geier's strange treatment began when blogger and autism parent Kathleen Seidel began researching, questioning and writing about Geier's use of Lupron, which many in the autism advocacy community view as an inhumane and scientifically unsupported "chemical restraint." Seidel's work was largely responsible for the review of Dr. Geier's medical practices.

It's not known yet exactly how many autistic children have recieved Lupron treatment from Dr. Geier. According to the Baltimore Sun:

"It's hard to know how many children and his son, who is not a doctor, have treated, but they have been outspoken in wanting to franchise their protocol. Alarmingly, the Geiers told The Chicago Tribune two years ago that they had injected 300 children and a few adults with Lupron and were testing 200 others for possible treatment. Geier is licensed to practice in 10 other states."

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. If he didn't have parent permission, he was wrong

And if I was a parent with a seriously disabled child, I'd ask for the shot.

[msanthrope]

23. You'd chemically castrate your child with Lupron?

Did you even read the side effects?

Consider that the disabled have a right to body integrity?

Sure, expressions of sexuality by the autistic may be embarassing to you, but is that the solution?

[LiberalLoner]

2. I was on Lupron once for treatment of endometriosis. It's nasty stuff and

it causes bone loss if used long term.

[lightningandsnow]

4. This.

I also have endo, although I haven't gotten to the hormonal treatment phase yet (I'm having surgery this week). It works well for what can be an extremely painful condition, but it has some very nasty side effects. Considering most of the pain caused by autism is caused by society's ableism, let's change that first before giving kids drugs that could have detrimental long-term effects.

(I have nonverbal learning disorder and/or some autistic traits depending on who you ask as well, so I can kind of speak to both conditions.)

[brewens]

7. I thought "bone loss" was the whole point. Long or short term. n/t

[mzteris]

3. Renowned quack, you mean. . . n/t

[lightningandsnow]

5. Castration, chemical or otherwise, for disabled people will always be problematic.

Whether you like it or not, folks with disabilities can, and are sexual. Supressing their sex drive just because you find the thought of non-neurotypical people having sexual desires offensive takes their agency away and is nothing other than deeply ableist. Now, if someone had an issue with inappropriately acting these desires out in a way that hurts others, I can see the case for reversible hormonal treatment on a case-by-case basis. However, from what I gather, this was being marketed to be used on anyone who is autistic, and that's pretty disgusting.

Also, Lupron has some very nasty side effects, which is why it's generally only used for very painful conditions like endometriosis.

I'm sick of "professionals" hurting people with disabilities under the guise of "helping" them.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. I wonder if he was one of the docs in the Lupron/Medicare fraud issue.

Lupron is made by TAP Pharmaceuticals Inc, a joint venture of Abbott Laboratories and Takeda Chemical Industries of Japan..says google.
( It is also used in treatment of prostate cancer)

And interestingly, the makers of Lupron are in trouble for fraud.

"Federal prosecutors, in an undercover criminal investigation, found evidence that the makers of Lupron - and hundreds of doctors that the company recruited - were ripping off taxpayers and patients alike.

In cases filed against urologists in Indiana, Florida and Connecticut prosecutors charged them with conspiring with a drug company to gain excess payments from Medicare for prescriptions of Lupron used to treat prostate cancer.

On billing Medicare, the doctors could expect to get $100 or more in illicit profits on every shot.


snip......Federal prosecutors charge that in the summer of 1995 the company offered Bristol, CT urologist Joseph A. Spinella a deal. If he would switch all his prostate-cancer patients from Zoladex to Lupron, he could extract as much as $7,000 extra a year from Medicare. Prosecutors say the company set Spinella up with free samples, which he also charged to the federal government."
http://www.psa-rising.com/upfront/lupron-scam-mar01.htm

Hmmmmmmmmm....was the good ex-doctor billing Medicare for those injections????

[Odin2005]

8. About time this EUGENICIST MONSTER had the book thrown at him

[BlueIris]

19. Yeah, really.

This is the single most disturbing story I have read all month, after the Fukushima updates and what's happening in our Southern states. Sick.

[LeftishBrit]

9. I'd use another term than 'renowned'

Lupron can have severe side-effects, especially in pre-pubertal children; and tbere is *no* evidence that it can treat autism.

[IdaBriggs]

10. He wasn't treating autism; he was surpressing their sex drives. nt

[LeftishBrit]

11. Actually he did claim to be treating autism

He was one of the proponents of the theory that autism is caused by mercury, especially from vaccinations. He argued that mercury is particularly present in testosterone in such cases, leading to chemical reactions that contribute to autism, and that large doses of lupron will reverse this. According to experts in the field, this makes no sense either biochemically or medically; but it has not stopped him from exploiting the desperation of parents in order to make quite a packet out of a useless (in these cases) and potentially dangerous drug.

[lightningandsnow]

14. That's still wrong.

People with disabilities are still sexual beings, as much as that seems to disturb some people.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

12. Put your autistic girl in a state home, and she will be raped constantly.

That's what I heard from a couple that talked to the administrators about putting their daughter in a state home in Texas. The administrator said they would put the girls on birth control pills, but the men patients would have sexual access to them. They got up and walked out in disgust.

[w8liftinglady]

16. I worked at Texas State Schools a long time ago,and can verify this.

All females were on oral contraceptives unless medically necessary to hold.
many of our male clients were on lupron.
Sexual physiology does not change because of mental retardation.
We did have some rapes. Our male and female clients wer in separate dorms,except for the clients we were prepping for independent living.
It IS a challenge.

[Odin2005]

22. Here in Minnesota such individuals would be in single-sex group homes.

Mixed-sex group homes are not allowed exactly for that reason.

[Odin2005]

21. WHAAAAA!?!

:grr:

[Generic Other]

13. The abstinance-only crowd behind this idea?

or is it the Eugenics movement reborn?

[LeftishBrit]

15. This is sheer quackery

Here is an account from Ben Goldacre's 'Bad Science' blog.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/feb/24/badscience.uknews

[tammywammy]

17. Good article n/t

[BlueIris]

18. Ugly.

Really ugly.

[Jefferson23]

20. What a disgusting thing to do and this man has ZERO credibility regardless.

Read about his pathetic antic's by googling his name..ugh.

This slime bastard should be brought up on charges.