Autism Conference from Hell

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Information about the organising outfit, Generation Rescue:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Rescue

I can't resist saying that it looks like Jenny McCarthy has no fears about putting potentially toxic substances like silicone and face fillers in her body, though there are some real safety concerns with those:
http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/23/w ... nt-matter/

Questions have been raised about the ethics of selling SPECT scans on the basis of unproven claims: neuroscience professor Martha Farah calls such use "profitable but unproven" and says "Tens of thousands of individuals, many of them children, have been exposed to the radiation of two SPECT scans and paid thousands of dollars out of pocket (because insurers will not pay) against the advice of many experts". Professor of psychology Irving Kirsch has said of Amen's theory: "Before you start promulgating this and marketing it and profiting from it, you should ethically be bound to demonstrate it scientifically in a peer-reviewed, respected journal" as otherwise "you're just going down the path of being a snake oil salesman". In a 2011 paper the neuroscientist Anjan Chatterjee discussed example cases that were found on the Amen Clinic's website including a couple with marital difficulties and a child with impulsive aggression. The paper noted that the examples "violate the standard of care" because a normal clinical diagnosis would have been sufficient and that there "was no reason to obtain functional neuroimaging for diagnostic purposes in these cases."Most patients do not realise that the SPECT scans rely on unproven claims.

An initial session at one of Amen's clinics costs about $3,500.
Amen's claims for the use of SPECT are "no more than myth and poppycock, buffaloing an unsuspecting public," according to officials at major psychiatric and neuroscience associations and research centers.

Two doctors who are featured speakers are facing lawsuits for using dangerous treatments that they claim reverse autism. Anjum Usman (who sometimes goes by Anju) and Daniel Rossignol were sued in Chicago by the parent of a 7-year-old boy with autism. The boy’s father, James Coman, said the doctors harmed his son using "dangerous and unnecessary experimental treatments."
Rossignol and Usman prescribed intravenous chelation treatments designed to rid the body of heavy metals. Chelation treatment is approved only for treating conditions such as lead poisoning and iron overload and even then, side effects can include high blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythms and low calcium, which can cause the heart to stop.
Rossignol prescribed the treatments over the phone without ever seeing the 7-year-old, the lawsuit said.