A Government watchdog faces investigation after accrediting a homeopathic body, which includes members offering a ‘cure’ for autism.
The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) regulate practitioners so the public can choose healthcare workers they can ‘trust’.
It accredited The Society of Homeopaths for a fifth year running, despite some of its members practising the bogus Cease therapy.
Cease relies on the false notion that autism is caused by vaccines, and supposedly involves the removal of ‘toxic imprints’ in a child through vitamin C and zinc supplements, among other unproven fixes.
Experts stress autism is not a ‘disease’ that is caused by environment substances, medicine or vaccines, and that Cease has no scientific credibility.
The High Court has given permission for a judicial review of PSAs decision, which has been accused of ‘failing’ vulnerable children with autism.
It comes amid growing fears among public health experts about the ever-growing spread of misinformation from anti-vaxxers.
Regulators have told 150 therapists in the UK to stop advertising a ‘cure’ for autism that recommend supplements such as vitamin C and zinc
The Good Thinking Society, a charity which encourages and promotes science, petitioned for the review, The Times reports.
Its investigations have suggested that at least 30 members of The Society of Homeopathy make direct offers of Cease treatments or link to a website promoting them.
Good Thinking said in court that the PSA had failed in its legal duty to safeguard the welfare of autistic children because Cease is ‘potentially harmful’.
Cease therapy was invented by a Dutch doctor called Tinus Smits, who wrote books about his beliefs that autism is caused by a child’s exposure to toxic substances. He died in 2010.
The foundations of the therapy, which stands for Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression, also suggest protecting children from autism by avoiding microwaves, antibiotics and bread.
Such bogus information is at the forefront of public health bodies’ concerns, alongside rife myths about the unproven dangers of vaccinations.
Simon Singh, chair of Good Thinking said: ‘Earlier this year, the World Health Organization identified anti-vaccination misinformation as one of the top ten threats to global health, and the impact of that misinformation has seen the UK lose its status as a measles-free country.
‘It is therefore shocking that the PSA seems to be comfortable with effectively endorsing practitioners who practitioners who undermine public confidence in vaccination and who thereby put vulnerable children at risk.’
The Society of Homeopaths told the PSA in April that it ‘did not support harmful practices related to Cease, such as discouraging vaccinations and encouraging extreme doses of dietary supplements’.
Good Thinking said that re-accrediting the homeopathic society was irrational, given what the PSA knew about Cease.
The PSA has previously urged people to choose practitioners from an accredited register after Cease therapists have been publically outed.
However, PSA, which oversees medical organisations, including the General Medical Council, reinforced The Society of Homeopaths’ accreditation on April 1.
The Society of Homeopaths has been part of PSA’s accredited voluntary register scheme since 2014.
Michael Marshall, project director at Good Thinking, said: ‘Being part of the PSA’s accredited voluntary register scheme is clearly a boon to the Society of Homeopaths and its members.
‘This is apparent from how prominently homeopaths, including those who practise the anti-vaccination Cease therapy, display the PSA’s logo on their websites and marketing material.’
The PSA have concerns about Cease therapy, but have allowed members of the homeopathic society to offer it as long as they do not explain what the acronym stands for, therefore spelling it out as a ‘cure’, Good Thinking said.
The judicial review follows the The Advertising Standards Authority banning claims that Cease therapy could ‘address’ autism, ADHD/ADD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, depression and schizophrenia in adults and children.
The watchdog sent enforcement notices to around 150 Cease therapists still operating in the UK in March.
There are around 700,000 autistic people in the UK.
Carol Povey, director of the National Autistic Society’s Centre for Autism, said: ‘It is deeply offensive for anyone to claim that unproven and even harmful therapies and products can “cure” autism – and particularly appalling where people target vulnerable families.’
MailOnline has contacted PSA and The Society of Homeopaths for comment.
IS ANDREW WAKEFIELD’S DISCREDITED AUTISM RESEARCH TO BLAME FOR LOW MEASLES VACCINATION RATES?
Andrew Wakefield’s discredited autism research has long been blamed for a drop in measles vaccination rates
In 1995, gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield published a study in The Lancet showing children who had been vaccinated against MMR were more likely to have bowel disease and autism.
He speculated that being injected with a ‘dead’ form of the measles virus via vaccination causes disruption to intestinal tissue, leading to both of the disorders.
After a 1998 paper further confirmed this finding, Wakefield said: ‘The risk of this particular syndrome [what Wakefield termed ‘autistic enterocolitis’] developing is related to the combined vaccine, the MMR, rather than the single vaccines.’
At the time, Wakefield had a patent for single measles, mumps and rubella vaccines, and was therefore accused of having a conflict of interest.
Nonetheless, MMR vaccination rates in the US and the UK plummeted, until, in 2004, the editor of The Lancet Dr Richard Horton described Wakefield’s research as ‘fundamentally flawed’, adding he was paid by a group pursuing lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers.
The Lancet formally retracted Wakefield’s research paper in 2010.
Three months later, the General Medical Council banned Wakefield from practising medicine in Britain, stating his research had shown a ‘callous disregard’ for children’s health.
On January 6 2011, The British Medical Journal published a report showing that of the 12 children included in Wakefield’s 1995 study, at most two had autistic symptoms post vaccination, rather than the eight he claimed.
At least two of the children also had developmental delays before they were vaccinated, yet Wakefield’s paper claimed they were all ‘previously normal’.
Further findings revealed none of the children had autism, non-specific colitis or symptoms within days of receiving the MMR vaccine, yet the study claimed six of the participants suffered all three.
