ArticleJournal of medical toxicology : official journal of the American College of Medical Toxicology2013
Commentary on the abuse of metal chelation therapy in patients with autism spectrum disorders.
Article in Journal of medical toxicology : official journal of the American College of Medical Toxicology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Metal Chelation Following Inappropriate Testing: Approach to Non-Medically Indicated Therapy Requests : Ethics in Practice.Journal of medical toxicology : official journal of the American College of Medical Toxicology · 2026Article
- De-implementation of Low-Value Practices for Autism Spectrum Disorder.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2023Review
- Medical toxicology case presentations: to chelate or not to chelate, is that the question?Journal of medical toxicology : official journal of the American College of Medical Toxicology · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Approximately half a million patients with autism spectrum disorders are subjected to chelation therapy in the US annually. The overwhelming majority of such cases are chelated for non-accepted medical indications. These patients may seek evaluation when a urine sample is assayed after the administration of a chelating agent and the values obtained have been improperly compared to references ranges for non-chelated urines, causing falsely elevated results. Legitimate practitioners confronted with such data must decide, preferably in consultation with the patient or their guardian(s), whether to do further testing using legitimate methodology or to simply dismiss the results of the improper testing. Bayesian principles tell us that further testing is likely to yield results within normal reference ranges. However, under some circumstances, it is useful to do such testing in order to demonstrate that there is no need for chelation therapy. Unnecessary chelation therapy is expensive, can cause significant acute adverse effects, and may be associated with long-term consequences.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.