Search Results
Controversial Autism Doctor Licensed in Illinois
"Parents of autistic kids are desperate to help their child,” said Dr. Pamela Campbell of SIU Health Care. That’s why alternative measures of treatment are sometimes intriguing but parents should know one thing.
“Treatments for children with autism should have a very strong research base," said the Center Director for the autism program at the Hope Institute.
Some might say Dr. Mark Geier has a strong research base. He boasts in a YouTube video about publishing nearly a hundred articles on vaccinations and genetics. But it's one vaccination in particular that's landed him in trouble.
Court documents show injecting the testosterone-suppressing drug Lupron became "treatment protocol" for Dr. Geier. Lupron is often used in men with advanced prostate cancer and to chemically castrate sex offenders, but Campbell says not in children with autism.
“I've actually been asked by parents because when a severely autistic individual becomes an adolescent, they have the same sexual drives that any normal adolescent has. But they have limited difficulty being able to control it,” Campbell said.
Court documents say Geier wasn't prescribing Lupron to adolescents, rather, children, and sometimes only after a phone call. “You don't prescribe medications for a patient you have not seen," Campbell said.
Geier's medical license is either revoked or suspended in nine states but not Hawaii, Missouri or Illinois. “Dr. Geier was put under emergency suspension in Maryland last year. We knew about that but because it was not a permanent suspension we had to wait until his license was permanently suspended this summer," said Susan Hofer of the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation.
Geier was affiliated with Genetic Consultants in Springfield but it's unclear whether he ever treated anyone at that facility. A representative there told us they severed ties with Geier after his license was revoked in Maryland but no one would speak to us on camera.
