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TREATMENTland Medical Board Suspends Dr. Mark Geier's License Dr. Mark Geier improperly diagnosed autistic children as having precocious puberty, according to the state of land. , Chicago Tribune By Steve Mills and Callahan, Tribune xrl.in/8y25 A doctor nationally known for treating autism with a drug sometimes used to chemically castrate sex offenders has been suspended from practicing medicine in his home state of land after state officials determined he is putting children at risk. Dr. Mark Geier allegedly misrepresented his credentials, misdiagnosed children and urged parents to approve risky treatments without fully informing them of the potential dangers, according to the land Board of Physicians. The board's order, dated April 27, states that Geier "endangers autistic children and exploits their parents by administering to the children a treatment protocol that has a known substantial risk of serious harm and which is neither consistent with evidence-based medicine nor generally accepted in the relevant scientific community." Geier told the Tribune in 2009 that he had treated hundreds of children with a testosterone suppressant called Lupron, which he called a "miracle drug." But a Tribune investigation exposed the therapy as a potentially dangerous treatment based on junk science and promoted by a physician not board-certified in any specialty relevant to autism or the use of hormone-disrupting drugs. Geier, who has treated Illinois children and retains a license to practice medicine here, is prominent in the world of alternative treatments for autism. His ASD Centers advertise "new hope for autism," and he has offices around the country, including in Springfield. Geier is scheduled to speak at the annual Autism One conference this month in west suburban Lombard. The land board found that in six of nine cases it reviewed, Geier incorrectly diagnosed children with autism with precocious puberty — that's the extraordinarily early onset of puberty — and prescribed Lupron, which is sometimes covered by insurance to treat that rare condition. In some cases, according to the board, Geier diagnosed the children with precocious puberty and prescribed drug protocols without examining them or conducting proper tests. Some of the children Geier diagnosed were too old to have the condition. Geier is a genetic counselor, but according to the land board order he has falsely claimed to be a board-certified geneticist and epidemiologist. Geier, who is not allowed to practice in land while the case is pending, referred questions to attorney ph Schwartz III. At the root of the case, Schwartz said, was a "bona fide dispute over therapy" rather than a doctor who posed an immediate threat to patients. "If you read the (order), you say, 'Holy God, this is awful.' But if it were so awful, they should have an injured child, and they don't," Schwartz said. "…It's just like shadowboxing with allegations that sound awful, but when you delve into the facts of them you say, 'What's the big deal here?'" Experts have long doubted the scientific basis for Geier's claims and treatments. In 2009, about two dozen prominent endocrinologists, in a paper published online in the journal Pediatrics, dismissed his Lupron protocol. Experts also warn that Lupron can disrupt normal development and potentially put children's hearts and bones at risk. The medical board also noted that Geier's son, , who is not a medical doctor but serves as executive director of ASD Centers, examined a 10-year-old boy in May 2008. Geier ordered lab tests for him and tried to check his neck and stomach by tapping him with an ultrasound wand as the boy moved around the room, the boy's mother told the board.. A record documenting that visit said the child's "symptoms are compatible with a diagnosis of pervasive developmental delay — not otherwise (specified)," and also noted insomnia and Unspecified Metabolic Disorder. land Gov. O'Malley appointed Geier in 2009 to the state's Commission on Autism as a "diagnostician," a decision state officials are reviewing. son, a spokesman for the state health department, said Geier declined Wednesday to resign from the position.+ Read more: xrl.in/8y25

DO SOMETHING ABOUT AUTISM NOW. . . Read, then Forward the Schafer Autism Report.$35 for 1 year - or free!www.sarnet.org• • •RESEARCHChildren Conceived In Winter Have A Greater Risk Of Autism, Study Finds tinyurl.com/3zsslyn

An examination of the birth records of the more than 7 million children born in the state of California during the 1990s and early 2000s has found a clear link between the month in which a child is conceived and the risk of that child later receiving a diagnosis ofautism. Among the children included in the study, those conceived during winter had a significantly greater risk of autism, the study found. The risk of having a child with an autism spectrum disorder grew progressively throughout the fall and winter to early spring, with children conceived in March having a 16 percent greater risk of later autism diagnoses, when compared with July conceptions. The researchers said the finding suggests that environmental factors, for example, exposure to seasonal viruses like influenza, might play a role in the greater risk they found of children conceived during the winter having autism. The study is published online today in the journal EPIDEMIOLOGY. “The study finding was pronounced even after adjusting for factors such as maternal education, race /ethnicity, and the child’s year of conception,” said leadstudy author Ousseny Zerbo, a fifth-year doctoral student in the graduate group in epidemiology in the Department of Public Health Sciences in the UC School of Medicine. For the study, the researchers obtained the more than 7.2 million records for children born from January 1990 through December 2002 from the state of California Office of Vital Statistics. The researchers excluded some records becausechildren did not survive to an age by which they typically would have been diagnosed with autism. Other records were excluded because they were incomplete. For example, records that did not include adequate information from which to calculate the month of conception were excluded. The month of conception was calculated as the last date mothers reported having a menstrual period plus two weeks. The total number of records finally included in the study was approximately 6.6 million, or 91 percent of all births recorded during the study period. The children were followed until their sixth birthdays to determine whether they would develop autism. The researchers identified which children were diagnosed with autism by matching birth records with those of children receiving services from the state Department of Developmental Services (DDS). Approximately 19,000 cases of autism were identified, with autism defined as “full syndrome” autism in the DDS records. The study found that the overall risk of having a child with autism increased from month to month during the winter through the month of March. For the study, winter was considered the months of December, January and February. Each month was compared with July, with an 8 percent higher incidence in December, increasing to 16 percent higher in March. Earlier studies’ findings about autism risk and month of conception or birth have had varied results. Some, such as ones conducted in Israel, Sweden and Denmark, have found an increased risk ofautism for children born in March. Studies conducted in Canada, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom identified an increased risk of autism for children born in the spring. However, these studies were far smaller, most having a few hundred cases of autism, when compared with the large number in California.+ Read more: tinyurl.com/3zsslyn• • •Mirror Neuron System in Autism: Broken or Just Slowly Developing?tinyurl.com/4xv3l5q

This graph shows the relationship between age and mirror activity for a normal brain and one with autism. (Credit: Image courtesy of Elsevier) ScienceDaily — Developmental abnormalities in the mirror neuron system may contribute to social deficits in autism. The mirror neuron system is a brain circuit that enables us to better understand and anticipate the actions of others. These circuits activate in similar ways when we perform actions or watch other people perform the same actions. Now, a new study published in Biological Psychiatry reports that the mirror system in individuals with autism is not actually broken, but simply delayed. Dr. Christian Keysers, lead

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