Naperville Doctor Known for Controversial Autism Treatment Disciplined

A Naperville doctor accused of using harmful alternative autism treatments that allegedly subjected two children to ”unwarranted, dangerous therapies” will have her Illinois medical license placed on probation for at least a year, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Dr. Anjum Usman, who practices out of the True Health Medical Center in Naperville, is nationally known for alternative treatments that include prescribing chelation, a hormone modulator and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which is meant to ”leach heavy metals from the body,” according to the newspaper.

The unproven therapy, which experts say is little understood, involves placing children in pressurized oxygen chambers, which are the same chambers typically used after scuba diving accidents, according to the Chicago Tribune. Experts say the therapy is meant to reduce inflammation and may be beneficial.

State medical regulators recently reached a consent order with Usman that alleges the doctors failed to disclose some of her financial interests with the company providing the hyperbaric oxygen chambers and with the pharmacy filling prescriptions and “also failed to obtain informed consent for the chelation therapy,” the Chicago Tribune reports.