Thursday, October 15, 2015

Autism and Lupron

Dr. Mark Geier has opened eight autism treatment clinics called ASD Centers across the country but is only allowed to practice at two of them — in St. Peters and Springfield, Ill.

Missouri and Illinois are among the last states to seek discipline against Geier, whose hormone therapy for children with autism has been called dangerous, abusive and exploitive by various medical boards.

In the last two years, his medical license has been revoked or suspended in California, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

Missouri, Illinois and Hawaii have filed complaints against Geier based on other states' actions, but his license remains active in all three states. A disciplinary hearing in Geier's case is set for Oct. 19 before the Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts in Jefferson City.
Geier did not respond to requests for comment.

After Geier and his son, David, ran into trouble in their home state of Maryland, they apparently came to Missouri.

Last year, David Geier, who has a bachelor's degree in biology, was charged with practicing medicine without a license. In their case against him, Maryland authorities said he had diagnosed patients, used ultrasound machines and ordered blood tests.

David Geier now works at the St. Peters clinic in a shopping center on Mexico Road.

"I don't see patients," Geier said when reached at the clinic Wednesday.

A man who answered the phone at the ASD Center in Springfield, Ill., said Dr. Mark Geier does not see patients there but consults with the clinic's director, Dr. Georgia Davis.

A local pediatric neurologist said he was stunned when a teenage boy came to a Mercy clinic this summer after being prescribed the testosterone-suppressing drug Lupron and diuretic Aldactone at the ASD Center in St. Peters.

"There is no evidence that the drugs used by Dr. Geier have been helpful for any autistic children," said Dr. Steven Rothman. "This is not a therapy that should be tried without very careful controls and really convincing preliminary evidence."...

Geier also has written that he prescribes Lupron to reduce testosterone because it binds to
mercury.  David Geier said Wednesday that "many peer-reviewed scientific studies" have been published that support the theory. All of the research articles cited on the ASD Centers' website are co-authored by Mark or David Geier...

The Geiers' research has been discredited by the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Geier's case illustrates some of the limitations of state medical boards. A complaint in one state does not necessarily launch an investigation by any other state where the doctor is licensed...

In a 2011 ruling to suspend Geier's license, the Maryland medical board said a 9-year-old Illinois boy received a prescription for Lupron over the phone. The ruling also said Geier injected Lupron in children with normal levels of testosterone, or who were too old for a diagnosis of early puberty.

After multiple appeals, Maryland authorities revoked Geier's license in August for his "almost total disregard of basic medical and ethical standards."

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/controversial-autism-doctor-loses-license-elsewhere-but-can-still-practice/article_3dd4aac0-675f-5998-84f3-beb29468d36b.html
Courtesy of a colleague

1 comment:

  1. Mark R. Geier (born 1948, Washington, D.C.) is a self-employed American physician and controversial professional witness who has testified in more than 90 cases regarding allegations of injury or illness caused by vaccines. Since 2011, Geier's medical license has been suspended or revoked in every state in which he was licensed, over concerns about his autism treatments, and his misrepresentation of his credentials to the Maryland Board of Health (he falsely claimed to be a board-certified geneticist and epidemiologist).

    Mark and his son, David Geier, are frequently cited by proponents of the now-discredited claim that vaccines cause autism. Geier's credibility as an expert witness has been questioned in 10 court cases. In 2003, a judge ruled that Geier presented himself as an expert witness in "areas for which he has no training, expertise and experience." In other cases in which Geier has testified, judges have labeled his testimony "intellectually dishonest," "not reliable" and "wholly unqualified." Another judge wrote that Geier "may be clever, but he is not credible."

    Geier's scientific work has also been criticized; when the Institute of Medicine reviewed vaccine safety in 2004, it dismissed Geier's work as seriously flawed, "uninterpretable", and marred by incorrect use of scientific terms. In 2003, the American Academy of Pediatrics criticized one of Geier's studies, which claimed a link between vaccines and autism, as containing "numerous conceptual and scientific flaws, omissions of fact, inaccuracies, and misstatements." New Scientist reported that the institutional review board which approved some of Geier's experiments with autistic children was located at Geier's business address and included Geier, his son and wife, a business partner of Geier's, and a plaintiff's lawyer involved in vaccine litigation. In January 2007, a paper by the Geiers was retracted by the journal Autoimmunity Reviews...

    As a professional witness he has testified in more than 90 vaccine cases, in support of the view that there is a clear link between thiomersal and autism...

    Geier has been qualified as an expert witness in Federal Court and has been accepted as an expert witness in approximately 100 hearings for parents seeking compensation from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program for alleged vaccine injuries to their children. In 10 of these cases, "Dr. Geier's opinion testimony has either been excluded or accorded little or no weight based upon a determination that he was testifying beyond his expertise."...

    Geier, his wife Anne, and their son David are all avid tennis players, and Geier and his wife were the only doubles team to achieve a grand slam in the history of the United States Tennis Association's Mid-Atlantic Section division.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Geier

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