According to Rachel Money,a CONTROVERSIAL vitamin injection claimed to help autistic children recover is to be promoted in Scotland by its American developer. Dr. James Neubrander, who will discuss the injection at a conference on Autism in Edinburgh this week, has a private clinic in New Jersey where he says he has given more than 75,000 shots of methyl cobalamin B12 since May 2002, with, he claims, 94% of children showing improvement.
Methylcobalamin B12 is a type of vitamin B12 produced naturally by bacteria in the colon and then absorbed. Some scientists believe that people with autism are unable to absorb this material. Neubrander said one injection is given every three days and the effects can be seen within five weeks. My kids can lose their diagnosis [as autistic] within a year and a half to two and a half years and be in a normal classroom where nobody would know they had autism. When they stop the shots they regress in the same manner a diabetic who stops taking insulin would regress.
When we first see these kids they cant talk and now they are totally recovered. This is to the autism world what antibiotics was to the modern world. The doctor will discuss his work at the Treating Autism Conference, organized by Action Against Autism, at the Royal College of Physicians, this Friday and Saturday. However, he points out that he is not suggesting his injection is the only treatment.
Some UK doctors are already experimenting with the treatment, which is currently undergoing clinical trials in the US. Dr Jean Monro, medical director of Breakspear Hospital in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, said the private hospital has been using the injections on autistic children for several months. She said: I saw one boy in his early teens who, from having been a chap who couldnt even sit down, can now co-operate with people. Weve also not found any side-effects yet.
But other medics are skeptical. Dr. Lain McClure, a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist with NHS Argyll and Clyde, is scathing of Neubranders claims. Dr Neubranders website claims his study provides scientific validation for use of methyl B12 in autism. I feel this cannot be scientifically justified, he said. Neubranders paper, published last year, reports findings from a study which compared 20 autistic children to 33 healthy children. But McClure said: Crucially, the study does not demonstrate any scientific evidence of clinical improvement in the autistic profile of children following these injections.
However, a Hampshire mother whose seven-year-old son Alex has been having the injections bought from a doctor in Chicago since last November, claimed to have seen improvements. Christina Wood said: We started to see more language, thats been the biggest thing. Hed stutter at the start of a sentence but not anymore.
A spokesman for the National Autistic Society (NAS) said many interventions for the complex condition had been developed, with various claims of success. It would not be appropriate for the NAS to recommend any one practice or therapy.
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Controversy over vitamin therapy for Autism
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