http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/health/27vaccine.html
September 27, 2007
Vaccine Compound Is Harmless, Study Says, as Autism Debate Rages
By GARDINER HARRIS
Yet another study has found that a controversial vaccine preservative appears to
be harmless. But the study is unlikely to end the increasingly charged debate
about vaccine safety. The study examined whether thimerosal — a
mercury-containing vaccine preservative that was almost entirely eliminated from
childhood vaccines by 2002 — is associated with neurological or certain
psychological problems in children ages 7 to 10.
Some parents’ groups and prominent legislators contend that thimerosal has
caused an epidemic of childhood autism. Several studies have examined this
question and found no evidence that thimerosal is associated with autism. The
most recent study did not assess thimerosal’s association with autism directly.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is conducting a separate autism
and thimerosal study that is expected to be published next year.
In this study, published yesterday in The New England Journal of Medicine,
researchers from the C.D.C. and several managed-care organizations subjected
1,047 children to 42 neurological and psychological exams, which included I.Q.
tests, how well children recalled a list of names and whether they could repeat
the names backward, their manual dexterity, and whether they stuttered or had
tics.
The researchers also took detailed medical histories to determine whether the
subjects’ mothers were exposed to thimerosal while pregnant, and how much
thimerosal the children were exposed to in their first seven months of life.
After subjecting the data to nearly 400 different statistical measures,
researchers found 19 different possible associations between thimerosal and
various mental outcomes — most of which suggested that thimerosal was actually
beneficial.
Researchers largely dismissed these associations as statistical flukes.
“By chance alone, with that number of tests, we would estimate that 5 percent of
the results would be significant,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the
National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the C.D.C. “And
that’s what we found.” The lone worrisome result was that, among boys, the study
found an association between thimerosal and tics, which are involuntary
movements or sounds. At least one earlier study had found a similar association.
But Dr. Schuchat said that researchers had made no distinction between
transitory tics — those that soon disappear and are not considered clinically
important — and permanent, serious or disfiguring tics. “That particular finding
is being evaluated further,” Dr. Schuchat said. Dr. Jeffrey Baker, a
pediatrician and vaccine expert who is director of the history of medicine
program at Duke University, said that the study’s findings should be reassuring
for parents.
“This study will further strengthen a growing consensus among researchers that
there is no real evidence that thimerosal in vaccines led to any actual harm,”
Dr. Baker said. But Sallie Bernard, executive director of SafeMinds, a nonprofit
parent organization whose members contend that thimerosal injured their
children, said the study was inconclusive. Ms. Bernard served on a board of
consultants that helped design and oversee the study, but she withdrew her
support for the published version of the study, saying its conclusions were not
supported by the underlying data.
“There are some red flags here,” Ms. Bernard said.
Nearly 5,000 families have filed claims with the federal government contending
that vaccines caused their children to become autistic. Even if the government
dismisses their claims, many families have vowed to continue their fight in the
courts. Since thimerosal’s removal from vaccines, there has been no evidence
that autism is on the decline.
Arch Dis Child 2000;83:174-175 ( August )
http://adc.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/83/2/174?ck=nck
Article
Short report
Mercury intoxication presenting with tics
Albert M Lia, Michael H M Chanb, T F Leunga,
Robert C K Cheungb, Christopher W K Lamb, T F Foka
a Department of Paediatrics, The Chinese
University of Hong Kong, 6th Floor, Clinical Sciences Building, Prince of Wales
Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China, b Department
of Chemical Pathology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Correspondence to: Dr Li email:
Albertm68mcli@yahoo.com
Accepted 22 March 2000
A 5 year old Chinese boy presented with recurrent oral ulceration followed
by motor and vocal tics. The Chinese herbal spray he used for his
mouth ulcers was found to have a high mercury content. His blood
mercury concentration was raised. Isolated tics as the sole
presentation of mercury intoxication has not previously been
reported.
Renegade School Board Member Educates Parents On ADHD
Alternatives
Monday, November 26, 2007
by: Gwen Olsen
Can you believe the audacity of some renegade school board member in Virginia
who dared to send fliers home to parents informing them of nutritional
alternatives to prescription ADHD medication? What is this world coming to when
parents are allowed to receive fair, balanced information and make informed
decisions for their children's health? Ms. Elizabeth Daniels has clearly
takenher roll as a community educator too far! See story in The Virginian-Pilot
(http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=135015&ran=160257&tref=po)
Well, not to worry. Big Pharma was having none of that and immediately sent in
their paid-for-supporters and front groups such as CHADD (Children and Adults
with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) to demand equal
advertising time . . . or flier distribution rights, in order to counter this
damning information and present their position that ADHD is a serious disease
that requires treatment. Problem is CHADD's fliers will contain propaganda paid
for by drug manufacturers and distributed strictly for corporate financial gain,
but parents will be none the wiser. So, in the interest of fair balance let's
examine the actual facts of this case:
ADHD has never been proven to be a neuro-developmental disease by any of the
currently acceptable scientific standards. There is a lack of empirical evidence
(meaning it cannot be repeated, tested, measured, or verified) that ADHD is a
disease by definition. Therefore, to make such a claim is fraudulent.
Since there is no medical test of scientific validity with which to diagnose
ADHD, it is a diagnosis made solely by a third-party's observation of
maladaptive behaviors and is entirely subjective. On the other hand, nutritional
deficiency testing, testing for heavy metal toxicity, food allergy tests,
and other infectious disease tests can be scientifically and medically
verified. There are a number of top-notch, FDA approved labs across the country
currently performing tests of this nature. The problem presented here for Big
Pharma is that these tests suggest there are therapies which can eliminate ADHD
symptoms without drugs.
What is clear to me, a fifteen-year-veteran of the pharmaceutical
industry who can easily recognize their re-positioning and mis-information
tactics, is that Pharma is scrambling to do damage control for their
multi-billion dollar psycho-pharmacologics business that has been under
scrutiny by Congress, the general public and, reluctantly, even FDA regulators
of late. The Drug Enforcement Administration classified methylphenidate in 1971
as a Schedule II substance (indicating this drug has significant risk of abuse
and addiction with limited medicinal value). The black box warnings were added
only last year to methylphenidate products such as Ritalin and Concerta, as well
as to the ADHD drugs Adderall and Strattera, for their potential to cause
serious psychiatric and cardiovascular problems, including psychosis, heart
attack, stroke, and sudden death. These label warnings had been fought by their
manufacturers for years. In addition to the above, Strattera, an SNRI (select
norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor) drug, also contains warnings for severe liver
damage as well as suicidal ideation.
There is consistent clinical data showing that as many as 40% of children fail
to tolerate or respond well to stimulant therapy. The prestigious MTA study
conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health found that long- term
outcomes for medicated children demonstrate diminishing returns over time and
behavioral improvements dissipate when treatment is withdrawn. In addition,
stimulant drugs are known to cause jitteriness, tremors, loss of appetite,
suppression of growth, insomnia, nausea, abdominal pain, dizziness, headache,
blood pressure and pulse changes, depression, sadness, over stimulation of the
brain, aggression, anxiety, psychosis and tachycardia in children.
Even more distressing is the fact that much of the current psychotropic business
for ADHD and depression is being funneled into the newer atypical antipsychotics
and promoted "off label" for these indications. Dangerous drugs such as Zyprexa,
Alibify, Geodon, and Seroquel are prescribed to children without any indication
that these drugs are safe or effective for children with ADHD symptoms. However,
these newer products have a longer shelf life as branded drugs - many of the
SSRIs and ADHD stimulants are available in generics or about to go off patent
-and represent a much more lucrative prescription long term for the industry.
The atypicals haven't gotten quite the amount of negative press yet that some of
the other psychotropics have. Despite the fact that antipsychotic medications
are known to cause permanent disfiguring tics and dyskinesias, akathisia,
mania,neuroleptic malignant syndrome, weight gain, increased cholesterol, and
diabetes.
None of these drugs are currently approved for use in children, although several
manufacturers have submitted requests for bi-polar illness indications in
children and adolescents. According to a report by CBS Evening News, there has
been a 500% increase recently in the prescribing of antipsychotics for children!
No good article about psychiatric drug controversy would be complete without
stating the contributions made by the Church of Scientology. In this one,Daniels
said she hadn't received any complaints from parents about the fliers, only
concerns that the information was taken from the Citizens Commission on Human
Rights Web site which has ties to Scientology. Wonder specifically who stated
that concern? Was it the CHADD representative, perhaps, who has vested financial
interests with the manufacturers of stimulants? Leave it to those pesky
Scientologists to suggest some crazy notion that parents deserve to be informed
about the dangerous effects stimulant drugs have on their children! Sorry, but
this issue has nothing to do with religion or politics. This is definitely just
another Pharma diversion tactic - and a lame one at that - in an attempt to
divert attention away from the dangers of their
drugs and refocus the issue on political, Scientology propaganda.
Consider this fact, CHADD's annual report for 2004-2005 lists total
pharmaceutical donation support through unrestricted educational grants as
comprising 22% of their total revenue. That represents $1,019,448 of
contributions in one year alone. I think the propaganda that parents should be
most concerned about is the covert advertising information presented by someone
who has this level of financial interest in promoting dangerous drug therapy to
children. Of course, that conflict-of-interest information was not
revealed in the Virginian-Pilot article. When will parents finally comprehend
that our children are considered a human commodity by the pharmaceutical
industry? Or, when will they understand the financial significance of the fact
that the child psychiatric market is potentially the most lucrative expansion
market that the industry has today, bar none? Or when will Americans realize
that this is an industry where
human death and suffering is relegated to statistics and bar charts depicted in
patient years, not body counts?
Perhaps it will be in the discovery process of one of the many lawsuits filed on
behalf of a loved one lost to a psychotropic drug reaction. Or, maybe it will be
in the desperate search for answers in a crisis situation when they reach out to
others on the World Wide Web. But there is one thing I do know from my extensive
experience in the industry, to Pharma it's just another day at the office - just
another cost of doing business!
FAIR USE NOTICE: This may contain copyrighted (© ) material the use of which has
not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such
material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of
human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues,
etc.It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such
copyrightedmaterial as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US
Copyright Law.This material is distributed without profit.
The information herein shall not be considered an endorsement of
anyonediscontinuing psychiatric drugs. If you are stopping taking medication it
is advisable to reduce the dose gradually WITH EXTREME CAUTION, as it is
difficult to predict who will have problems withdrawing. It is worth getting as
much information and support as you can, and involving your doctor wherever
possible.You will find withdrawal information here:
http://www.mind.org.uk/Information/Booklets/Making+sense/Making+sense+of+coming+\off+psychiatric+drugs.htm
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON WITHDRAWAL:: Get Peter Lehmann's book, Coming off
Psychiatric Drugs: Successful Withdrawal from Neuroleptics,
Antidepressants, Lithium, Carbamazepine and Tranquilizers. This valuable
resource comes in US, UK, and German editions.
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