September 2003

No link between vaccines and autism, says JAMA article

SEPT. 30, 2003 — Researchers have found no association between thimerosal-containing vaccines and the development of autism in children who received the vaccine, according to an article in the October 1 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

According to background information in the article, thimerosal, a preservative used in some vaccine formulations, contains ethylmercury. At high doses, mercuric compounds can cause toxic effects in the kidneys and nervous system. It has been suggested that childhood vaccination with thimerosal-containing vaccine could be causally related to neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and language and speech delay.

Anders Hviid, M.Sc., and colleagues from the Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark, studied children who were vaccinated with a thimerosal-containing pertussis vaccine and children vaccinated with the same pertussis vaccine formulated without thimerosal and compared these two groups with respect to development of autism and other autistic-spectrum disorders. The study included all children born in Denmark from January 1, 1990, until December 31, 1996 (n=467,450).

The researchers identified 440 autism cases and 787 cases of other autistic-spectrum disorders. The risk of autism and other autistic-spectrum disorders did not differ significantly between children vaccinated with thimerosal-containing vaccine and children vaccinated with thimerosal-free vaccine. Furthermore, there was no indication of a dose-response association between autism and the amount of ethylmercury received through thimerosal.

The authors conclude that, "The results do not support a causal relationship between childhood vaccination with thimerosal-containing vaccines and development of autistic-spectrum disorders."

The study was supported by a grant from the Danish National Research Foundation and a grant from the Danish Medical Research Council.

Source: Journal of the American Medical Association

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