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http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/02/lancet.retraction.autism/index.html?hpt=T2
(CNN) -- The medical journal The Lancet on Tuesday retracted a controversial 1998 paper that linked the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism.
The 12-year-old study linked autism with the MMR vaccine. The research subsequently had been discredited.
Last week, the study''s lead author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, was found to have acted unethically in conducting the research.
The General Medical Council, which oversees doctors in Britain, said that "there was a biased selection of patients in The Lancet paper" and that his "conduct in this regard was dishonest and irresponsible."
The panel found that Wakefield subjected some children in the study to various invasive medical procedures such as colonoscopies and MRI scans. He also paid children for blood samples for research purposes at his son''s birthday party, an act that "showed a callous disregard" for the "distress and pain" of the children, the panel said.
Following the council''s findings last week, The Lancet retracted the study and released this statement.
"It has become clear that several elements of the 1998 paper by Wakefield et al. are incorrect, contrary to the findings of an earlier investigation. In particular, the claims in the original paper that children were ''consecutively referred'' and that investigations were ''approved'' by the local ethics committee have been proven to be false. Therefore we fully retract this paper from the published record."
Has autism touched your life? Share your stories, thoughts on vaccination study
Dr. Andrew Wakefield was found to have acted unethically in conducting autism research.
Dr. Andrew Wakefield was found to have acted unethically in conducting autism research.
Since its publication, Wakefield''s study has attracted many critics, who argued that the work had been so flawed it should not be regarded as scientific.
Wakefield theorized that the measles vaccine caused gastrointestinal problems, and that those GI problems led to autism. In his view, the virus used in the vaccine grew in the intestinal tract, leading the bowel to become porous because of inflammation. Then material seeped from the bowel into the blood, Wakefield''s theory said, affecting the nervous system and causing autism.
But later research discredited this theory.
A September 2008 study replicated key parts of Wakefield''s original paper and found no evidence that the vaccine had a connection to either autism or GI disorders. The study, conducted at Columbia University, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also found no relationship between the timing of the vaccine and children getting GI disorders or autism.
The Wakefield study also became part of the evidence that parents cited who did not vaccinate their children.
"The story became credible because it was published in The Lancet," Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation, said Tuesday. "It was in The Lancet, and we really rely on these medical journals."
Singer, the mother of a child with autism, added, "That study did a lot of harm. People became afraid of vaccinations -- this is the Wakefield legacy -- this unscientifically grounded fear of vaccinations that result in children dying from vaccine preventable diseases."
Retractions are rare in medical journals and usually occur as a result of fraud or plagiarism, said Marcia Angell, a former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.
"It is a major event when there is a retraction like this," she said. "It sounds like there was a misleading design of the study ... patients not randomly chosen. There were ethical violations."
(CNN) -- The medical journal The Lancet on Tuesday retracted a controversial 1998 paper that linked the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism.
The 12-year-old study linked autism with the MMR vaccine. The research subsequently had been discredited.
Last week, the study''s lead author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, was found to have acted unethically in conducting the research.
The General Medical Council, which oversees doctors in Britain, said that "there was a biased selection of patients in The Lancet paper" and that his "conduct in this regard was dishonest and irresponsible."
The panel found that Wakefield subjected some children in the study to various invasive medical procedures such as colonoscopies and MRI scans. He also paid children for blood samples for research purposes at his son''s birthday party, an act that "showed a callous disregard" for the "distress and pain" of the children, the panel said.
Following the council''s findings last week, The Lancet retracted the study and released this statement.
"It has become clear that several elements of the 1998 paper by Wakefield et al. are incorrect, contrary to the findings of an earlier investigation. In particular, the claims in the original paper that children were ''consecutively referred'' and that investigations were ''approved'' by the local ethics committee have been proven to be false. Therefore we fully retract this paper from the published record."
Has autism touched your life? Share your stories, thoughts on vaccination study
Dr. Andrew Wakefield was found to have acted unethically in conducting autism research.
Dr. Andrew Wakefield was found to have acted unethically in conducting autism research.
Since its publication, Wakefield''s study has attracted many critics, who argued that the work had been so flawed it should not be regarded as scientific.
Wakefield theorized that the measles vaccine caused gastrointestinal problems, and that those GI problems led to autism. In his view, the virus used in the vaccine grew in the intestinal tract, leading the bowel to become porous because of inflammation. Then material seeped from the bowel into the blood, Wakefield''s theory said, affecting the nervous system and causing autism.
But later research discredited this theory.
A September 2008 study replicated key parts of Wakefield''s original paper and found no evidence that the vaccine had a connection to either autism or GI disorders. The study, conducted at Columbia University, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also found no relationship between the timing of the vaccine and children getting GI disorders or autism.
The Wakefield study also became part of the evidence that parents cited who did not vaccinate their children.
"The story became credible because it was published in The Lancet," Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation, said Tuesday. "It was in The Lancet, and we really rely on these medical journals."
Singer, the mother of a child with autism, added, "That study did a lot of harm. People became afraid of vaccinations -- this is the Wakefield legacy -- this unscientifically grounded fear of vaccinations that result in children dying from vaccine preventable diseases."
Retractions are rare in medical journals and usually occur as a result of fraud or plagiarism, said Marcia Angell, a former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.
"It is a major event when there is a retraction like this," she said. "It sounds like there was a misleading design of the study ... patients not randomly chosen. There were ethical violations."
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