A new treatment for children with autism has an interesting history.
Heres the report: Prospective, Blinded Exploratory Evaluation of the PlayWisely Program in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
PlayWisely is rather like a brain training program of cognitive exercises, but involving a face-to-face interaction with a coach too, which is a big plus (often these things are computerized.) Its all very innocuous.
However, the lead author is one Janet K. Kern, who is affiliated with the Maryland Institute for Chronic Illnesses, home of the not-at-all-innocuous duo who are Mark and David Geier.
This father-son team is known for being leading proponents of the idea that autism is caused by mercury in vaccines. Geier the Father recently lost his medical license. As Wikipedia has it:
On April 27, 2011, the Maryland State Board of Physicians suspended Mark Geiers medical license as an emergency action, saying he endangers autistic children and exploits their parents by administering to the children a treatment protocol that has a known substantial risk of serious harm
This treatment was the Lupron Protocol which involves giving children doses of a powerful drug that reduces levels of the sex hormones, testosterone and estrogen. Lupron is more commonly used for chemical castration, the treatment of cancer, and sex reassignment. Not autism.
Geier the Son meanwhile was never a doctor in the first place, but was recently fined $10,000 for practicing medicine as if he were one.
To recap, two men were practicing medicine, with one qualification between them, and now theyve got none. So Kerns association with these two is hardly a good sign.
But it wasnt her first involvement with a dodgy treatment. Kern was also closely involved in the secretin theory. Secretin is a hormone involved in digestion and in 1998 there were claims that it could treat autism.