Dateline NBC’s Lateline?
June 22, 2007 by Do'C 
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It’s been a very interesting couple of weeks at the Omnibus Autism Proceedings. While I haven’t had time to read many of the transcripts, I have been keeping up with the coverage and commentary from a couple of my favorite autism bloggers: Autism Diva and Kevin Leitch.
I’ve been pretty busy - away from the blogosphere lately. And, I really don’t want to draw any attention away from the “not mercury and measles” transcripts of the OAP, but something I saw in an e-mail, reminded me that it has been one year since Dateline NBC seems to have done any follow-up to their story on the Arizona chelation study. Remember? The one Jim Adams conducted through the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine? I had heard, and thought I remembered seeing that the study had dwindled down to a dozen or so participants.
You may also remember, that this was the study noted on David Kirby’s Evidence of Harm website that “aims to demonstrate whether chelation therapy can improve the symptoms of autism”.
Later this year, investigators at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., will launch a clinical trial involving 80 autistic children ages 3 to 9. Half of the children will receive DMSA, the treatment approved by the FDA for lead poisoning. The other half will receive a placebo. The trial aims to demonstrate whether chelation therapy can improve the symptoms of autism.
It would be surprising if chelation did anything for the “symptoms of autism” at all. At any rate, that was back in February of 2005.
The following, later came from David Kirby himself:
Other research continues at places like Harvard, Columbia, Northeastern and Arizona State University, where the first-ever trial of chelation therapy (removal of heavy metals) for autism is about to wrap up.
Emphasis mine. Source
Hmm, that was back in June of 2006, and the study (which was rejected by ASU’s IRB and moved to the naturopaths) was apparently about to “wrap up” at that time.
In fact, apparently Jim Adams presented preliminary results from the DMSA study at the AutismOne convention/show in 2006.
Guess what? It looks like those ‘preliminary’ results may have been re-discussed a full year later at the AutismOne convention/show in 2007.
James Adams, PhD
Mercury, Chelation, and Autism
[...The preliminary results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled 3-month DMSA chelation treatment study will be discussed.]
Given his tendency to shift goalposts, attempt to redefine the symptoms of autism, and attempts to shift burden of proof, I really don’t care what David Kirby has to say on the subject. I also don’t really care what Jim Adams talks about at autism conferences (conferences that probably do more to lighten the wallets of parents than provide any real scientific insight in my opinion).
But, what about NBC’s Dateline?
I do care that a mainstream media outlet (NBC’s Dateline) covered the story, promised follow-up, and doesn’t appear to have delivered one iota of it.
Jim Adams predicts he’ll have the final results of his study by the end of the year, and we’ll have them first, here on Dateline.
That came from NBC News Correspondent John Larson in June of 2006.
Looks like the AutismOne convention/show beat you to it two years in a row Mr. Larson.
Dateline will follow up to see what happens as the study concludes sometime in the winter of 2006.
- Alexandra Gleysteen, Dateline producer
It’s been a year. Any follow-up for viewers Ms. Gleysteen?
Edited to add (6/30/2007): Adams’s 2007 Autism One conference presentation is up on the Autism One website. I was incorrect about a dozen or so participants. Apparently the studied continued and had 40 children. Perhaps there will be a peer-reviewed article forthcoming after all.
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Comment by Ms. Clark — 23 June, 2007 @ 12:40 am
I assumed that the Adams story was foisted on to Dateline by way of Katie Wright’s influence on her father, who was running NBC at the time. I expect that Dateline minus the pressure of Bob Wright will have no interest in the story… however, they did promise to give their viewers a follow up.
I hope they are willing to roast Jim Adams properly if he’s been avoiding telling people the truth of what he found.
Comment by 666sigma — 23 June, 2007 @ 4:54 am
I’ve looked for this study at least a dozen times on the Internet and came up with squat. I’m assuming that the preliminary results suck. You don’t go braggin’ on national TV and not back it up, especially if you’re a small time professor.
Maybe he’s taking money under the table from some of the DAN! doctors not to follow through with the study.
Why is Jim Adams distrusted so much? His daughter is autistic - classically autistic - and he has admitted that chelation did not work for his daughter,
Comment by Joseph — 23 June, 2007 @ 5:38 am
I wrote a couple notes to Dateline about their promise of a follow-up. I got no responses whatsoever from anyone.
I can only assume the results were not as good as some people expected. But for Jim Adams to keep quiet about that says a lot about him I think.
Comment by Do'C — 23 June, 2007 @ 8:52 am
I don’t think he’s distrusted, in fact, Joseph has commented on his likely trustworthiness on more than one occasion, but here’s one for you to see.
Source
The ’science’ produced by Adams is probably fairly disregarded. Continued citations of Holmes et al., Bernard et al., and overstated conclusions don’t help.
His daughter being classically autistic (did you mean mercury poisoned?), is irrelevant.
All, please make further comments about the study itself, or Dateline’s apparent lack of follow-up coverage - not about Jim Adams.
Comment by Bartholomew Cubbins — 23 June, 2007 @ 9:54 am
The mercury debacle (the court cases, the goal post moving, and the political maneuvering) is like watching an explosion in slow motion. Gee, I’m glad I’m not there.
Comment by Broken Link — 23 June, 2007 @ 10:41 am
Here’s a summary written by a parent who attended Autism One:
“Jim Adams: DMSA study. Basically, they did one round of DMSA on 40 children- a round being 3 days on DMSA with 11 days off. They found that with one round of DMSA glutathione levels were normalized and the effect lasted for up to 2 months. They then split the group into 2, half getting 6 more rounds of DMSA and the other half getting a placebo. There were more improvements in the group getting the DMSA but oddly there was not much of a dramatic difference over the control group. This was partially attributed to placebo effect in parental reporting but the urine/blood testing of metals being excreted, did not show a lot of difference. He said the test should have gone on longer than 7 rounds. Particularly there was not alot of increase in mercury excretion from 1 round to 7. One other benefit was that platelet count decreased in children with increased platelet count which indicates improved immune function. There was not alot of loss of minerals with DMSA which is a concern. Potassium, chromium and vanadium were most affected. He said to give supp that has chromium and small amout of vanadium, and to give lots of fruits and veggies to increase potasium. Also, mercury binds to cystein and cystein is excreted with the mercury, so cystein levels may get low. Normal gut flora demethylates mercury and yest is a remethylator, so yeast overgrowth can result in mercury being remethylated and reabsorbed into the body.”
HMMM. This is supposed to be a study looking at the behavioral benefits of chelation. So, he reports not much of a difference over the control group (presumably wrto behavior, but maybe only wrto glutathione levels). When he sees no extra metals in the urine/blood compared to controls, and he has to start talking about platelet counts, we pretty well know that the study has been a failure. I don’t expect to see it published in a journal any time soon. Nor do I expect Dateline to report on it.
Comment by Joseph — 23 June, 2007 @ 2:50 pm
Yep, I did start out giving Dr. Adams the benefit of the doubt. That was a while back.
Comment by 666sigma — 23 June, 2007 @ 4:14 pm
His daughter being classically autistic may be irrelevant, but his admission that chelation did not help her is. If anyting, it should have made him skeptical of chelation. However, after looking at his powerpoint, it seems that he falls clearly in the mercury camp.
BTW, his powerpoint was not that compelling and it certainly did not live up to the expectations set out on Dateline. Dateline should at least tell people that they do not plan to follow up.
Comment by mike stanton — 23 June, 2007 @ 5:09 pm
I used to be a man on a mission regarding my autistic son. I was an educator and thought the education system should provide for him. And so it should. But could it? No.
Jim Adams is a scientist who thinks his science should be able to make a difference for his child. Is this another example of when should comes to could?
Comment by Joseph — 24 June, 2007 @ 5:47 am
If a study is a failure, I’m not sure if it’s wrong to not publish it. But it should be noted, for the record, that the following is what Dr. Adams said according to Dateline:
“Jim Adams: Disappointed, yes. But whatever way it turns out, we’ll report it. If it doesn’t help, we’ll report it. And if it does, we’re gonna report that, too. “
Comment by Do'C — 24 June, 2007 @ 9:15 am
I tend to agree with you Joseph - especially if it’s a study that employed flawed methodology (like reporting mercury measurements based on spot urine collections expressed as a ratio to creatinine without reporting creatinine values). Publishing flawed methodology just adds mud to the water, whether a study is thought to be a failure or not.
Dateline should dig much deeper and follow-up with some detail - it sounds as if Adams should be more than willing.