Neurology Today:
doi: 10.1097/01.NT.0000335577.64245.34
Letters to the Editor
RUBIN, DANIEL B. MD, PHD
In “After Vaccine-Autism Case Settlement, MDs Urged to Continue Recommending Vaccines” (June 5), Dawn Fallik correctly cites Jenny McCarthy as a celebrity fanning the flames of the vaccine-autism link. McCarthy also makes parents think that autism can be cured with unproven treatments — as she claims is the case with her son — documented in her much publicized book, Louder than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism (Dutton 2007).
Unfortunately, what the public does not realize as well as perhaps McCarthy is that her son was most likely misdiagnosed with autism in the first place. His disorder began with seizures and, subsequently, with the seizures treated, he improved. This would be more consistent with Landau-Kleffner syndrome, which often is misdiagnosed as autism.
Daniel B. Rubin, MD, PhD
Valley Stream, NY