Pretty alarming stuff. I’ve been reading versions of this for years and it remains stomach-turning in how willing some practitioners are to experiment (a term that some are taking exception to, but I think is right on the money) sans human rights committee and IRB, all while turning a healthy profit while doing so.

“…Pardo said that since his paper came out he has received many questions about unproven autism treatments. He is particularly haunted by inquiries regarding powerful immunosuppressant drugs usually used on organ transplant patients, calling the idea “completely wrong.”

Said the researcher: “People are abusing science for the treatment of autism.”

More to the point, people are abusing CHILDREN for the treatment of autism.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-autism-science-nov23,0,6519404,full.story

Short clip

“Physicians and others in the movement — many affiliated with the organization Defeat Autism Now! — say their treatment protocols rest on a foundation of solid science. But the Tribune found otherwise after speaking with dozens of scientists and physicians and reviewing thousands of pages of research and court testimony.

Pardo’s study is just one example. In May, the Tribune reported on another questionable use of research. A geneticist and his son who promoted treating children who have autism with a testosterone inhibitor had based their protocol, in part, on the work of Simon Baron-Cohen, a psychopathologist at England’s University of Cambridge who has explored the role of the hormone in autism.

Yet Baron-Cohen told the Tribune that the idea of using the drug this way “fills me with horror.”

Pardo said that since his paper came out he has received many questions about unproven autism treatments. He is particularly haunted by inquiries regarding powerful immunosuppressant drugs usually used on organ transplant patients, calling the idea “completely wrong.”

Said the researcher: “People are abusing science for the treatment of autism.” “