Alternative treatments for autism - some of them potentially deadly - are growing more pervasive and run the gamut from dietary supplements to prescribing a potentially dangerous diabetes drug, which now carries the government’s most stringent warning.

“What this all boils down to is that people are very motivated to help their children. They’re desperate and there are people out there who are preying on their desperation,” said James Mulick, a professor of pediatrics and psychology at Ohio State University. Autism is an incurable neurodevelopmental disorder usually diagnosed in early childhood and marked by language and communication deficits and withdrawal from social contact.

Mulick cited diets, such as those in which the wheat protein gluten is eliminated, to the use of vitamin supplements as some of the harmless but he believes ineffective treatments sought by parents of autistic children.

Chelation therapy, Mulick said, is a potentially dangerous process that uses a compound that is supposed to remove heavy metals from children’s tissues. Many parents believe mercury contained in routine vaccines is the cause of autism. A 5-year-old Pittsburgh boy with autism died in 2005 after undergoing chelation therapy, according to news accounts…

Source: Newsday, NY
http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hsauti215340114aug21,0,7750405.story