US Autism Doctor Charged With Unethical Conduct

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The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has charged an Illinois doctor, Dr. Anjum Usman, with “unprofessional, unethical and/or dishonorable conduct” in regard to her use alternative medical treatments for an autistic boy. The treatments described in the complaint have been widely promoted in the past decade by practitioners and families who claimed that such practices as chelation to remove poisonous heavy metals, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, secretin (a pancreatic hormone) and more had “cured” their children from autism. Books such as Karyn Seroussi’s 2002 Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders and Jenny McCarthy’s 2007 Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism are only a few accounts claiming miraculous recoveries from autism thanks to alternative medical treatments.

The rationale for using such unproven biomedical treatments such as chelation, anti-fungal therapy and many more to “treat” autistic children rests on equally unproven theories about what causes autism. For instance, some proposed that children were “damaged” by substances in vaccines, such as a mercury-based preservative thimerosal, or by the vaccines (such as the MMR) themselves. Chelation, via powerful drugs and in other forms such as infrared saunas, was thought to be a way to remove “heavy metals,” as well as whatever was making a child autistic.

The complaint against Dr. Usman charges her with making false or misleading statements regarding the value of treatments, showing “extreme departure from rational medical judgment” and “abus[ing] the patient/physician relationship.” The complaint requests that her medical license be “revoked, suspended, placed on probation or otherwise disciplined” and was filed by the parents of an autistic boy who was diagnosed with mild to moderate autism in 2004.

Usman allegedly diagnosed the child with acalcium-to-zinc imbalance, yeast, dysbiosis, low zinc, heavy metal toxicity and abnormally high levels of aluminum, antimony, arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, nickel, silver, tin, titanium and selenium.

Treatments listed in the complaint include dietary restrictions; nearly three dozen vitamin, enzyme, mineral and other dietary supplements; two antifungal drugs; four chelators or detoxifying drugs; a hormone suppressor, and hyperbaric oxygen treatments, in which the child is shut inside a pressurized bag filled with extra oxygen.

“None of the treatments described above has been proven to influence the course of autism,” the complaint states. And yet Usman “made statements to (the boy’s) mother that the prescribed treatments had positive clinical benefits for children with autism, despite the lack of empirical research.”

At one point, the complaint alleges, Usman prescribed selenium supplements even though the boy’s levels were normal. She “continued to do so even when (the boy) eventually showed a high level,” according to the complaint.

Dr. Usman’s alternative medical treatments were the subject of a a 2009 Chicago Tribune investigation. Since my own son Charlie was diagnosed in 1999, we have heard about such treatments and took Charlie to a number of different biomedical practitioners when he was younger. We tried a number of supplements, did various kinds of testing, put Charlie on a special gluten-free casein-free diet for years and concluded that such treatments were not helping him and, in some ways, were detrimental.

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Bruce S.

12:20PM PDT on Oct 22, 2011

I believe that are too many children are being diagnosed as being autistic. If accurate, it would represent a ten fold increase from fifty years ago. While some parents would like to blame vaccines, that has proven to be nonsense. There are so many quack doctors out there claiming to have a "treatment for autism", a parent needs to be EXTRA vigilant today or risk actually harming their child.

send a green star

Past Member .

2:48AM PDT on Oct 20, 2011

Thanks for sharing.

Claire M.

10:01PM PDT on Oct 18, 2011

The article was taken from the Chicago Tribune. Sorry but it looks to me like they are trying to crucify this doctor to set an example for doctors who wont go along with the big pharma push to get all of America on drugs. Prescription drugs are harmful to kids. They are supposed to be the lesser of evils so to speak when there is no other choice, not the norm. Also a lot of kids diagnosed with autism are normal healthy kids with lazy parents and teachers. At least by any natural standard of normal. I have to wonder sometimes if we are setting up an entire generation of Munchhausen by proxy for lonely moms.

colleen p.

4:48AM PDT on Oct 18, 2011

well, we all know dolphins do nothing for autism. it's scientifically proven

Margaret G.

1:10AM PDT on Oct 18, 2011

Lindsey, first Percy and me were "suspects".Now Maria. Honestly, you are repeating yourself.
I see how much effort you put into saying bad things about the doctor you don't know, alternative therapies and even commenters who dare to defend her, that I start suspecting you. Are you working for some of pharmaceutical companies, hold stock of vaccine producers or have some personal interest against Dr Usman? You behavior is very suspicious to me.

Linda I.

6:30PM PDT on Oct 17, 2011

I have spent most of my 29 years as a psychiatric nurse working with children and adolescents and had a special interest in working with children who had autism. I have seen my share of unproven treatments, but the worst I had heard about was a Baltimore physician who was treating boys who have autism with Depo-Provera (warnings on this substance state it should not be used in children). This guy's theory was that high levels of testosterone increased the effects of mercury presevatives from vaccines. In most cases mercury-based preservatives are no longer used in vaccines. Anyway, this physician's son, who had no professional credentials, started "prescribing" Depo and even became appointed to a governor's advisory panel on autism. Several months ago, this house of cards fell and the physician lost his license and the son was removed from the panel and charged with practicing medicine without a license.
For many parents, the diagnosis of autism in one of their children is devastating and many reach out to try these unproven "cures". You do have to be careful that these alleged treatments don't harm the child and also that you don't rush into hopefully noting a big improvement where there is none. Most of us who work with those who have autism realize that this is a complex brain disorder; the causes are multifactorial, including genetic and environmental; and there is no cure. What I have seen to be most effective is within the educational and behavioral interventions. I al

Percy R.

5:35PM PDT on Oct 17, 2011

So Lindsey, only those who share your views are allowed to join this website and contribute to the conversation?

3:05PM PDT on Oct 17, 2011

Unfortunately, Maria, actual identity can quite reasonably alter our evaluation of the substance of one's comments. And coincidence can be stretched only so far.

Aaron H.

1:24PM PDT on Oct 17, 2011

@Maria N.,

I commend you on your sound reason and diplomatic stance in this discussion. We are not here to push our beliefs on others, but to share our understanding of the issue. Thank you.

Maria N.

12:50PM PDT on Oct 17, 2011

Lindsey, thank you for welcoming me. You note that I have just joined, implying that it somehow makes me suspect. I note that you are crusading outside of your area of personal and professional expertise, and have appointed yourself as a representative of the majority in this discussion. I suggest that it would be better to limit ourselves to the substance of our respective comments.