Jim Laidler

Last updated
James R. Laidler
Alma mater Pacific Lutheran University, University of Southern California, University of California San Francisco, University of Illinois at Chicago [1]
Known forOpposition to autism therapies
Scientific career
Fields Virology
Institutions Portland State University

James R. Laidler is an American anesthesiologist in Portland, Oregon, who is known both for his activism for, and later his opposition to, alternative autism therapies.

Contents

Education

Laidler obtained his bachelor's degree from Pacific Lutheran University in biochemistry in 1981. He completed his residency in anesthesiology, as well as a fellowship in pain medicine, in Chicago and began treating autistic children in 2000. [2] Laidler is an adjunct professor at Portland State University. [3]

Autism activism

Originally, Laidler was not only an outspoken advocate of alternative autism therapies, and often spoke at Defeat Autism Now! conferences, but had used many of them on his own sons, including chelation therapy, secretin, and a number of dietary supplements such as dimethylglycine. [4] However, he had a change of heart after his son, who was on a gluten-free diet for his autism, ate a waffle at a buffet while his parents were distracted. Laidler says his son's doctors had told him that his son would experience a "total regression" were he to eat any gluten, but nothing actually happened. [5] [6] Another factor which motivated Laidler to change his mind was when his wife "secretly stopped the treatments and waited to see if he noticed a difference;" Laidler noticed no such difference and became convinced that such treatments are ineffective. [7] Since then, Laidler has become an outspoken opponent of alternative treatments for autism, particularly chelation therapy; for example when a child died after receiving it in 2005, Laidler said he was confident that the therapy was responsible for the child's death, saying, "This is what I've been holding my breath hoping wouldn't happen." [8] Laidler appeared in a 2007 episode of Nightline along with Mark Geier, where he contended, in contrast to Geier's views on the topic, that thimerosal-containing vaccines do not cause autism. [9]

Scientific work

In the scientific literature, Laidler has published papers not only in his capacity as a professor at Portland State specializing in virology, [10] [11] but has also published a paper in Pediatrics , arguing that data from the United States Department of Education are unreliable for measuring autism prevalence, [12] a view he has reiterated on Quackwatch. [13]

Laidler is also well known for submitting a report to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System that a vaccine had turned him into the Incredible Hulk, which was then accepted and entered into the database; however it was later removed after Laidler was contacted by a VAERS representative and gave his permission to delete the record. [14] [15] Knowingly filing a false VAERS report is a violation of Federal law (18 U.S. Code § 1001) punishable by fine and imprisonment. [16]

Related Research Articles

A gluten-free casein-free diet, also known as a gluten-free dairy-free diet, is a diet that does not include gluten, and casein. Despite an absence of scientific evidence, there have been advocates for the use of this diet as a treatment for autism and related conditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chelation therapy</span> Medical procedure to remove heavy metals from the body

Chelation therapy is a medical procedure that involves the administration of chelating agents to remove heavy metals from the body. Chelation therapy has a long history of use in clinical toxicology and remains in use for some very specific medical treatments, although it is administered under very careful medical supervision due to various inherent risks, including the mobilization of mercury and other metals through the brain and other parts of the body by the use of weak chelating agents that unbind with metals before elimination, exacerbating existing damage. To avoid mobilization, some practitioners of chelation use strong chelators, such as selenium, taken at low doses over a long period of time.

The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a United States program for vaccine safety, co-managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). VAERS is a postmarketing surveillance program, collecting information about adverse events that occur after administration of vaccines to ascertain whether the risk–benefit ratio is high enough to justify continued use of any particular vaccine.

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Thiomersal is a mercury compound which is used as a preservative in some vaccines. Anti-vaccination activists promoting the incorrect claim that vaccination causes autism have asserted that the mercury in thiomersal is the cause. There is no scientific evidence to support this claim. The idea that thiomersal in vaccines might have detrimental effects originated with anti-vaccination activists and was sustained by them and especially through the action of plaintiffs' lawyers.

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References

  1. ↑ "Fads and Fallacies in Autism". Oregonians for Science and Reason. 23 June 2005. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  2. ↑ Hannaford, Alex (30 January 2013). "Autism Inc.: The Discredited Science, Shady Treatments and Rising Profits Behind Alternative Autism Treatments". Texas Observer . Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  3. ↑ Langreth, Robert (21 December 2012). "Autism Cures Promised by DNA Testers Belied by Regulators". Bloomberg Businessweek . Archived from the original on 3 June 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  4. ↑ Shute, Nancy (7 October 2010). "Desperation Drives Parents to Dubious Autism Treatments". Scientific American . Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  5. ↑ Tsouderos, Trine; Callahan, Patricia (7 December 2009). "Autism therapies can get undeserved credit". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  6. ↑ Levinovitz, Alan (29 April 2015). "An Alternative-Medicine Believer's Journey Back to Science". Wired . Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  7. ↑ Harris, Gardiner; O'Connor, Anahad (25 June 2005). "Experts Reject Some Therapies". New York Times . Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  8. ↑ Valdez, Angela (12 October 2005). "Curing Jamie Handley". Willamette Week . Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  9. ↑ "Nightline June 26, 2007". Vanderbilt Television News Archive . Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  10. ↑ Laidler, J. R.; Stedman, K. M. (2010). "Virus Silicification under Simulated Hot Spring Conditions". Astrobiology. 10 (6): 569–576. Bibcode:2010AsBio..10..569L. doi:10.1089/ast.2010.0463. PMID   20735248.
  11. ↑ Caldwell, S. L.; Laidler, J. R.; Brewer, E. A.; Eberly, J. O.; Sandborgh, S. C.; Colwell, F. S. (2008). "Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane: Mechanisms, Bioenergetics, and the Ecology of Associated Microorganisms". Environmental Science & Technology. 42 (18): 6791–9. Bibcode:2008EnST...42.6791C. doi:10.1021/es800120b. PMID   18853791.
  12. ↑ Laidler, J. R. (2005). "US Department of Education Data on "Autism" Are Not Reliable for Tracking Autism Prevalence". Pediatrics. 116 (1): e120–e124. doi: 10.1542/peds.2004-2341 . PMID   15995012.
  13. ↑ Laidler, James R. (15 September 2004). "How "Educational Assessments" Skew Autism Prevalence Rates". Autism Watch . Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  14. ↑ Laidler, James R. (27 July 2005). "Chelation and Autism". Neurodiversity.com. Archived from the original on 23 April 2006. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  15. ↑ Hagood, E. Allison (2012). Your Baby's Best Shot: Why Vaccines Are Safe and Save Lives. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 106–107. ISBN   9781442215788.
  16. ↑ "VAERS - Report an Adverse Event". vaers.hhs.gov. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
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