Gut abstract reports on lumbar punctures for 30 autistic children at Royal Free

This page is research from an investigation by Brian Deer for The Sunday Times of London and the UK's Channel 4 Television into a campaign linking the MMR children's vaccine with autism. | Go to part I: The Lancet scandal | Go to part II: The Wakefield factor

Among the biggest concerns raised by Brian Deer's investigation was a battery of invasive investigations performed on autistic children. Here, an abstract presented at the annual meeting of the British Society of Gastroenterology on 10-13 March 1998, in Harrogate, Yorkshire, reports at least 30 autistic children were involved in the most intensive phase. Elsewhere, the second author, Dr Simon Murch, claims it was fewer than 12. In all, at least 170 were subjected to ileocolonoscopies and other serious procedures