Autism Street

Home Sweet Homeopathy

In Raising in Arizona: Part One, which was primarily an article about a “team” approach to early intervention, I mentioned the fact that Arizona is only one of three states in the U.S. that licenses homeopaths. I had been meaning to get back to writing about homeopathy sooner, but it just didn’t seem that important. The concept of homeopathy in itself is so scientifically flawed, I had sort of adopted a perspective of “it’s a tax on the deservedly clueless”.

I know that might sound brash, but in reality homeopathy is probably not medically harmful, unless parents are substituting it for effective medical intervention where medical intervention is required. Of course it’s certainly possible that it’s financially and emotionally harmful to those who see it as “promising”, without understanding its pseudoscientific basis.

Why do only three states license homeopaths? I think it probably has more to do with the local homeopathic practitioners attempting to create some semblance of credibility rather than governmental oversight. (Don’t miss that credibility link). After all, how many states license miracle workers, alchemists, or real magicians (not performers)?

And what does homeopathy have to do with autism?

Here’s a suggestion in the section “What To Do Next” near the end of the Autism Research Institute’s (ARI) Advice for Parents of Young Autistic Children document (authored by By James B. Adams, PhD, Stephen M. Edelson, PhD, Temple Grandin, PhD, and Bernard Rimland, PhD). The document appears on the ARI’s website.

Find a local physician, preferably one who is familiar with the Defeat Autism Now! Protocol, and plan out a series of medical tests and treatments. Some physicians will be open to medical testing and biomedical treatments, but others will not – find one who is willing to help your child, as opposed to just monitoring the severity of your child’s problems. Do not take your child to a physician who does not support you or respect your viewpoint.

[Emphasis mine]

Okay, so let’s assume you (dear reader) are a parent with a child that has just been diagnosed as autistic, and you’re (for whatever reason) going to follow the above advice. That apparently means seeking a “DAN! doctor”. Never mind that the series of medical tests could become quite expensive, and that some or many of the tests may be irrelevant, because if they lead to a biomedical treatment plan, that’s good, right?

There’s only one small problem with this. Forget for a minute that aside from a few specific genetic etiologies, that the likely complex genetics and cognitive causes of the vast majority of presentations of autism are not definitively known. How many biomedical treatments are known produce anything resembling a “cure” or “treatment” for autism? Zero. That’s right, there are currently exactly zero biomedical treatments scientifically proven (through replicated, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials) that have been shown to do anything remotely resembling “treating” autism itself.

So who are these “DAN! doctors” that you’d seek in Arizona? Who are these great potential bringers of scientific testing and “treatments” (treatments that according to peer-reviewed medical literature indexed on PubMed don’t really appear to be proven to do anything for autism at all)?

Here’s a little bit of information from ASU Professor, Jim Adams in a recent flyer advertising for the 2006 Zoo Walk “Fundraiser For Autism Research” in which Adams describes ARI and DAN!

Training Doctors in Practical Biomedical Treatments ARI holds special training sessions for doctors and nurses 2x/year at the DAN! Conferences – this is the only national group that trains physicians on practical biomedical treatments for autism! DAN!-trained doctors in Arizona include Drs. Cindy Schneider, Raun Melmed, Sanford Newmark, Martha Grout, Matthew Baral, Warren Tripp, Abram Ber, Alan Ketover, Paul Charnetsky, Warren Levin, and more.

So ARI holds special training sessions for doctors and nurses 2x/year at the DAN! Conferences? Well, not exactly for doctors and nurses as might be inferred by some. It really depends on how one defines “doctors” and “nurses”. In fact, here’s what the ARI website has to say about who’s actually being trained.

Note that some health care practitioners listed below are not physicians, and therefore are not able to provide some of the DAN! diagnostic and treatment options.

The partial list of Arizona DAN!-trained “doctors” given on this Zoo Walk flyer differs slightly from the ARI’s Defeat Autism Now! (DAN!) Physician Referral list, which can be viewed at the ARI website.

If one combines both lists, there appears to be a grand total of about 13 DAN!-trained “doctors” in Arizona. Wait a minute, is this an “uh-oh” waiting to happen? 8 of the 13 DAN!-trained “doctors” are licensed homeopaths or naturopaths? Note: apparently homeopathy is often included in the scope of practice of many naturopaths.

Matthew Baral - Licensed Naturopath
Abram Ber - Licensed Homeopath
Martha M. Grout - Licensed Homeopath
Cheryl Harter - Licensed Homeopath
Alan K. Ketover - Licensed Homeopath
Warren Levin - Licensed Homeopath
Geoffrey P. Radoff - Licensed Homeopath
Maureen Schwehr - Licensed Naturopath

Yep, apparently it’s 8 out of 13. If you were to draw names out of a hat to choose a “DAN! doctor” in Arizona, there’s apparently a greater than 60% chance you’d be taking your child to see a naturopath or homeopath.

Note: Some of the licensed homeopaths/naturopaths may also be licensed MD’s or hold other healthcare licenses/certifications in Arizona.

Note: Abram Ber is listed as an M.D. on the ARI Physician Referral List, and in fact apparently was licensed in Arizona back in 1977, but according to the Arizona Medical Board website, his license looks like it expired in 1982 and was not renewed.

When I first saw these lists, I thought that this doesn’t appear to be a symbiotic affiliation for the homeopaths/naturopaths and ARI/DAN! It could appear to many that such practitioners are affiliated with DAN! simply for the advertising - perhaps parents of autistic children desperate for “cure” or “treatment” and their money are easily parted.

Of course I realized that I could be wrong. Perhaps it’s possible that ARI/DAN! will willingly list as many practitioners who will sign up and pledge their faith  as possible.  And they do apparently pledge their faith.

Regrettably, some parents have reported to us that certain DAN!-listed practitioners they contacted were in fact not truly sympathetic to the DAN! approach, despite their having requested to be on our DAN! referral list. In response to this problem, in July 2002 ARI requested all those on the DAN! practitioners list to sign a statement asserting that they subscribe to the DAN! philosophy, and conduct their practice in accordance with the DAN! philosophy.  

Hmm, conduct their practice in accordance with the DAN! philosophy? Whatever happened to best evidence-based practices? Signing up as many practitioners as possible, regardless of the actual scientific foundation of the particular styles of “medicine” they practice, may make it easier for believers in DAN! promoted hypotheses to make the argumentum ad numerum and argumentum ad populum to people who are easily influenced by such things - but everyone knows what a skeptic is going to say about those.

In case you happen to be a reader who is visiting this mostly skeptical blog and you don’t know what traditional homeopathy really is, here is a link to a brief yet excellent summary available at homeowatch.org that describes some core concepts like homeopathy’s Law of Similars and Law of Infinitesimals. There’s plenty of good reading at JREF, The Bad Homeopath, and numerous skeptical bloggers like Skeptico and Confessions of a Quackbuster, and even scientific studies indexed at PubMed.