Open letter to Autism Directory about having CEASE Therapy offering homeopaths in their listings

I sent this text on 7 July 2019 via Twitlonger (a third party app which will send out a tweet for you containing a link to where the text is stored). Authorise the app, write your text and it will do the rest. If you begin the text with an @ it will send it as a reply (in which case don't fill in the title bit as that'll ruin the reply format).

As of 18 July 2019 the listings remain.


https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1squjpj

@AutismDirectory @GWT82 Re: https://www.theautismdirectory.com/listing/homeopathy-cease-therapy

Please remove listings* for CEASE Therapy from your directory as the treatment cannot help people with autism and is exploitative. The acronym stands for "Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression" (itself a misleading statement).

The treatment involves supplements and vitamins, at much higher doses than recommended by the NHS, and can result in diarrhoea and stomach cramps. Tinus Smits (the inventor of CEASE) celebrated diarrhoea as being some sort of 'evidence' of detoxifixation of vaccines https://twitter.com/UKHomeopathyReg/status/1109070117223235585

There have been various efforts to stop misleading claims made by people offering CEASE (and in some non-UK cases to stop CEASE practice) as this treatment does not work and is effectively a form of medical neglect with potential harms to autistic kids.

1. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA, UK) has sent Enforcement Notice to 150 homeopaths offering CEASE treatment to remind them of permitted and non-permitted marketing claims https://www.asa.org.uk/news/cease-therapy-claims-must-stop.html. Some of these homeopaths who have failed to comply have been referred to Trading Standards.

2. The Federation of Holistic Therapists (UK) will not accept onto its register any homeopath offering CEASE therapy (or homeoprophylaxis - which means offering homeopathic remedies as a [non-functional] alternative to vaccination) - see Section 3.4 in this PDF https://www.professionalstandards.org.uk/docs/default-source/accredited-registers/panel-decisions/annual-review-panel-decision-fht.pdf and general "not endorsed" info on their page https://www.fht.org.uk/therapies/homeopathy. Their register has been accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA, who report to Parliament).

3. The Society of Homeopaths (SoH) still permits CEASE-offering homeopaths onto their register though the PSA has been working with them over the last two years to try and reduce the risk to the public from this https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/27/more-than-120-homeopaths-trying-to-cure-autism-in-uk. They were re-accredited in 2018/2018 with some restrictions then, controversially, the PSA (re)re-accredited their register in 2018/2019 https://www.professionalstandards.org.uk/docs/default-source/accredited-registers/panel-decisions/society-of-homeopaths-annual-review-2018.pdf

4. Last week The Good Thinking Society submitted a request for a Judicial Review of the PSA's decision (to re-accredit the SoH) "to keep autistic children safe from homeopaths who offer harmful CEASE therapy" https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/gts-cease-psa/ (also https://goodthinkingsociety.org/good-thinking-files-judicial-review-over-psa-reaccreditation-of-society-of-homeopaths/)

5. Many CEASE practitioners have a listing on an official CEASE website which the Dutch equivalent of the ASA has found to be in breach of advertising standards http://ukhomeopathyregulation.blogspot.com/2017/10/more-on-cease-therapy.html

6. Naturopaths in British Columbia, Canada are not allowed to advertise or offer CEASE therapy, nor are they allowed to offer anti-vaccination materials or advice, nor claim that vaccination can cause autism https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/naturopath-college-outlaws-therapy-promising-complete-elimination-of-autism-1.4682714

7. Homeopaths are working with vulnerable children without having a DBS check and those who are not members of a Society (registered or otherwise) have no particular oversight for safeguarding. This is effectively a feral treatment (the treatment and advice are often offered via Skype).

In response to the many, many concerns about CEASE and about the regulatory changes some homeopaths are using alternative names (eg EASE for "Easing Autistic Spectrum Expression") or the more general "homeopathic detox" - but cynically the underlying 'treatment' is the same. Please watch out for this.

CEASE Therapy has been around for a while but has only recently become prominent in the last couple of years and as such it wasn't included in the UK's Westminster Commission on Autism publication about Harmful Interventions for Autism https://westminsterautismcommission.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/a-spectrum-of-harmful-interventions-web-version.pdf

Please do not promote this pointless but harmful treatment to people with autism or parents of autistic children.

*These are the homeopaths listed on your page who offer CEASE, please remove these listings.

• Acorn to Oak Health
• Liesje Cochrane
• Paula Lattimer
• Gill Marshall Homeopathy
• Roberta Young
• Jak Measure
• Dr.Joshi's Center for Autism
• Miranda Parson's Homeopathy
• Alison Roberts Homeopathy

Thank you
Jo

CEASE Therapy for autism in the UK news today - it doesn't treat or cure autism

1. Listen
The BBC will run a piece* early this afternoon on Radio 4's You and Yours about a bogus treatment for autism, called CEASE Therapy aka 'Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression'.

Listen to it on BBC Radio 4 from 12.15pm today Friday 22 March 2019, or catch up later
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003d81

Read You and Yours' post about the story "Advertising watchdog rules fake autism 'cure' adverts must stop" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47666939

CEASE rests on the false idea that vaccination causes autism and uses homeopathy and supplements to try and "detox" children from the imagined negative effects of the vaccines. Not only is it nonsense it's also harmful and medically neglectful (encourages diarrhoea as a process to eliminate toxins),  a safeguarding concern (vulnerable children and families involved) and offensive (implying that autism should be eliminated). There is no need for it, and it's great that awareness is being raised.

2. Watch
The BBC also referenced CEASE on their Breakfast television show. You can watch it again on iPlayer (you may need to register) until tomorrow (Saturday, at 9.15am), from 19 minutes into the programme (6.18am on the programme itself).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0003fvb/breakfast-22032019

3. ASA
The Advertising Standards Authority's CEO Guy Parker published a blog post today about the action the ASA has been taking against homeopaths who are offering CEASE therapy and who are referencing it in relation to autism. Last year the ASA sent out an Enforcement Notice to 150 CEASE homeopaths pointing out the problems with offering the therapy, this notice has also been published today. Five homeopaths have been referred to Trading Standards but not yet added to their Referrals page.

Why so-called CEASE Therapy claims to 'cure' autism really have to stop
https://www.asa.org.uk/news/cease-therapy-claims-must-stop.html

Metro have also picked up the story.
Guardian too.

The ASA have previously adjudicated against two practitioners offering CEASE therapy - Teddington Homeopathy
and Elle Fox (trading as Bubbling Life).

4. SoH / PSA
The Society of Homeopaths is one of several membership societies for homeopaths but is the only one regulated by the Professional Standards Authority. SoH members are already required to adhere to ASA's guidelines but last year the PSA had to step in and address problems with some members' claims about CEASE.

The response by the SoH to the ASA's action has been described as "staggeringly inadequate" because there have been "discussions taking place on how the therapy might be renamed" instead of addressing the underlying nonsense. This merely "(e)ncourages CEASE quacks to continue as before, while hiding from ASA." 

Today (and over the weekend) Oxford University's Lady Margaret Hall is hosting the SoH's AGM and conference (on fertility and pregnancy).

5. See also
• CEASE Therapy on Wikipedia
• Westminster Autism Commission (PDF) on other harmful interventions on autism (CEASE not included)

*"We report on what's being done to stop a bogus treatment which claims to cure autism in children. The Advertising Standards Authority has told You & Yours it’s served enforcement notices on 150 homeopaths who offer so-called CEASE therapy. The treatment claims to purge heavy metals, vaccines and antibiotics from a child’s system. The National Autistic Society says there's no cure for autism and it's wrong to claim it can be cured. We speak to a mother who tried the treatment for several months and now regrets it. The Society of Homeopaths say there are discussions taking place on how the therapy might be renamed to make claims aren't made that can't then be substantiated."

Some encouraging regulatory news on CEASE therapy for autism - #homeopathy

Summary: the PSA has already taken on board skeptics' concerns about some of the Society of Homeopaths' members who use homeopathy and CEASE therapy in treating (and claiming to treat) autistic children. In January 2019 the PSA added an additional point to consider, which is that the treatment "seeks to ‘eliminate’ a characteristic that not everyone would think necessary or desirable to eliminate" and is a safeguarding concern.

CEASE therapy is a bogus treatment for autism. It stands for Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression and consultations are regularly offered by homeopaths via Skype, widening the pool of possible patients to anyone around the world. CEASE relies on the incorrect idea that it's possible to detox from vaccinations by using high dose vitamins, other supplements and homeopathic remedies.

The Society of Homeopaths is aware that some of their members offer CEASE and that the marketing of the intervention is often deemed problematic. There have been adjudications by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) against homeopaths who've made misleading claims about the treatment and it's generally considered that writing CEASE out in full itself makes a marketing claim.

For the last couple of years the Society of Homeopaths (SoH) have had their register of members accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). Skeptic bloggers (including me) have been regularly in touch with the PSA to express concerns about the problems that promoting CEASE therapy entails. The PSA has taken some promising action.

In February 2018 the PSA re-accredited the SoH but with provisos attached that they monitor CEASE-offering members' advertising material, put a position statement on their website about the treatment and what can't be claimed for it and review the risks of the treatment.
• More detail on this can be found here Better monitoring of homeopaths advertising CEASE therapy for autism in the UK - hooray (28 Feb 2018)

A fellow skeptic has just alerted me to the recently published outcome from a Board Meeting the PSA had on 16 January 2019. It covers all of their accreditation processes but specific mention is made of the PSA's own concerns about CEASE therapy / homeopathy, raising a new issue that I confess hadn't occurred to me (Equality Act, see first para in the quote below).
• More at Update on Accredited Registers (19 Jan 2019), a 6-pg PDF.

Point 6.12 on page 5 of 6 says (emphasis added by me)

"...In the light of our experience with considering the issues involved in CEASE therapy we would highlight one additional point. Whilst we addressed this primarily from a safety perspective, it also raised an ethical issue under the Equality Act in so far as the therapy seeks to ‘eliminate’ a characteristic that not everyone would think necessary or desirable to eliminate. Since we already consider observance with the Equality Act within our assessment process we do not think we need to amend the principles.

We consider the safeguarding legislative gap to present an ongoing risk to the public and we will continue to raise this matter with the DHSC and Ministers. This year we will focus our assessment activity on accredited registers risk management procedures, which will include reviewing their safeguarding arrangements and if this continues to highlight a problem, we will present our findings to DHSC to strengthen our call for action."
From Update on Accredited Registers (19 Jan 2019)DHSC = Department for Health and Social Care

Encouragingly the Society of Homeopaths has already appointed their first safeguarding officer (Sep 2018) which is a positive move, but there are still a number of their members whose websites make claims about autism that shouldn't be made. More on that in the next couple of months or so.

As for the SoH's current accreditation? Along with a couple of other members' registers their status is "Annual review under assessment"...


Further reading

• Hoping for advertising compliance from autism-'treating' homeopaths in 2019 (30 Dec 2019) - this blog
• Non-compliant Society of Homeopaths members (14 Dec 2018) - UK Homeopathy Regulation blog
• Letter to UK politicians (5 Dec 2018) - UK Homeopathy Regulation blog
• Possible Amendments to UK Legislation to control Quackery (15 Nov 2018) - UK Homeopathy Regulation blog
• A new Wikipedia page on CEASE therapy (15 Jul 2018) - this blog
• More than 120 homeopaths trying to ‘cure’ autism in UK (27 Apr 2018) - The Guardian
• Homeopathic Treatment of Autism - Evidence #2 (5 Apr 2018) - UK Homeopathy Regulation blog
• The Society of Homeopaths agrees that it's unethical to claim to cure autism with CEASE (28 May 2018) - this blog
• Homeopathic Treatment of Autism - Evidence #1 (26 Mar 2018) - UK Homeopathy Regulation blog
• I have written to the Society of Homeopaths about their members who are promoting CEASE therapy (9 Dec 2017) - this blog

Pic credit: Schüssler tablets homeopathy

"Rope worms" - new to me, but not to 'science'

Edit: 3 Jan 2019 - I've now created a new 'stub' page on Wikipedia for Rope worms.

I have been reading about ropeworms or rope worms which are in reality parts of the gut lining that have sloughed off and been pooed out. They can be quite large and arise because people are taking fake treatments (such as MMS* bleach enemas) to remove these 'gut parasites' in the hope of curing diseases or conditions (such as autism).

In fact the enemas would appear to be simply creating the rope worms by stripping parts of the gut lining away.

There are two papers that have been published on uploaded to ArXiv which argue that these ropeworms might be a new species of human gut parasite, a notion which has been strongly refuted (and laughed at) by Science Based Medicine and also several people answering a question about rope worms on Quora.

It's absolute nonsense and not an "anaerobic helminth". For an added bonus the 'worms' have also been given the name "funis vermis" in one of the papers. This would be funny if people weren't giving bleach enemas to children with autism with the intention of 'removing' these 'parasites' from the gut. People are awful.

For lots of revolting pictures of gut linings relabelled as worms have a look at this PDF.

*MMS = Miracle Mineral Solution / Supplement aka Master Mineral Solution (aka sodium chlorite, chlorine dioxide solution, aerobic oxygen) is a form of bleach which is sold as a claimed cure-all for all sorts of things, including autism. More info from the UK's Food Standards Agency. As of 2016 MMS is also been banned (by HPRA) for sale in Ireland.

Misleading website health claims - anyone can send a cease and desist letter

    Photo credit: aitoff on Pixabay (CC0-licence)

I have discovered something which I think I really should have known about, and which has astounded me.

Anyone can send a Cease and Desist letter to a trader who is making misleading claims. For me this would largely relate to misleading health claims, as that's my area of interest, but it would apply to anyone. This would seem to be of particular interest to scientists, doctors, skeptic activist / bloggers and so on.

My recommendation is to proceed very cautiously and politely though :)

The letter itself has no legal weight on its own, the trader doesn't have to respond. However it may be in their interests to do so.

If you subsequently report them to Trading Standards your ignored letter (keep a copy) is potential evidence against them, for persisting in being misleading after you had pointed out the problem.

My surprise discovery happened while reading this paper "Testing the Effectiveness of Consumer Legislation for Health-Related Claims" from HealthWatch. The paper follows the path of a series of complaints made to the UK's (National) Trading Standards about websites' health claims for which there's no (or unlikely to be) robust evidence. HealthWatch's web page accompanying the paper puts things into context:

• Pursuing a complaint is cumbersome and lengthy
• Most complaints do not result in enforcement
• Approaches to enforcement vary widely between trading standards offices

The paper reports on the actions of several volunteers who followed a protocol for asking traders for evidence and, if none forthcoming (or not of suitable, robust quality) a cease and desist letter was sent before the complaint was escalated to Trading Standards.

"Volunteers asked traders to provide evidence for their claims. None did, but three removed their claims from their websites. Volunteers then sent the remaining traders a 'cease and desist' letter, warning them that failing to comply would trigger a complaint to the authorities. One further trader removed claims at this stage." [from page 3 of the 54 page PDF].   The template for the Cease and Desist letter is on page 50.

Regrettably Trading Standards was only able to investigate a handful of cases (they are understretched) which highlights the importance of bloggers writing about misleading claims in an attempt to stem the flow of nonsense on the web by providing better information.

Even before you get to that point it's not always obvious who you should be complaining to about a misleading health claim. In its March 2018 report, the Westminster Commission on Autism found that it was difficult and confusing for people to report misleading and harmful 'cures' for autism^§ to the relevant authorities.

Their report recommended that the relevant regulatory bodies (Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), Trading Standards, Food Standards Agency, Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA)) etc could help by determining who has responsibility for what - this is not always clear in the case of food products (Food Stds Agency remit) which are sold with medical claims (MHRA or Trading Stds remit).

"It is currently far too difficult to determine which agency is responsible for the regulation of the manufacture, promotion, distribution, sale and use of harmful physical, medicinal, psychological or social interventions for autism. Establishing the remit of each agency listed on page 3, identifying potential gaps between them and suggesting possible ways to close the gaps is highly complex. The Commission recommends that the Government urgently convenes the agencies listed alongside others to thoroughly consider the current gaps and look for solutions.

The agencies must produce a publicly available flowchart of their remit and establish a single reporting mechanism for any concern. The Government should reassess the appropriate remit of each organisation and assess the benefits and drawbacks of legislation similar to the Cancer Act 1939." [page 5 of the Westminster Commission on Autism's report, 'A Spectrum of Harmful Interventions for Autism: a short report']

Previously I have blogged about how I would like to be able to have a quiet word with people selling quackery instead of reporting them to the Advertising Standards Authority or Trading Standards, in the hope that they make amendments without 'getting into trouble' and saving everyone time.

Giving people the opportunity to remove their misleading claims without reporting them to any authority seems a friendly way to proceed. However, from experience such attempts have not been well received (or are just ignored). It's a bit fraught - I don't think there's any way of broaching the subject with a trader that doesn't come across a bit threateningly (how could it not, given that the subtext must always be 'if you don't amend this, I will report your site to the regulatory body').

For that reason my preference is probably just to continue reporting misleading claims directly, however if you want to give traders the opportunity to amend claims without involving authorities (until you have to, because they've ignored you) then here's a recommended sequence of events to follow, or 'flowchart'. This assumes you're fairly confident in assessing health evidence.

1. Ask for (robust) evidence (this would not include testimonials) and give them a reasonable time to respond ('please reply by X').
2. If no response, or if evidence is poor, send a polite cease and desist letter - keep copies.
3. If nothing happens you can report them to Trading Standards and the letter may be used as evidence.

Note that the authors and volunteers involved in the HealthWatch paper were acting following legal advice - I am not a lawyer and while a cease and desist letter is unlikely to be a legal document on its own I recommend conducting this sort of business super-professionally. Remember you are probably dealing with someone who genuinely believes in their 'treatment' and may be terrified by receiving what looks like an official document. While they are misleading people, and may potentially cause harm, don't be unkind in your dealing with them.

With thanks to @Majikthyse for additional help :)

^§Further reading
A number of skeptics' complaints to the Society of Homeopaths over concerns that their members were touting CEASE therapy for children with autism apparently fell on deaf ears (the SoH were very polite when I contacted them, however no changes to the problematic websites were made). These complaints were then escalated to the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) which accredits the SoH's register of homeopaths, and the PSA has taken action. They have re-accredited the SoH (review panel decision) but with a number of provisos, effectively putting the Society of Homeopaths into 'special measures' - maintenance of their accreditation is dependent on fulfilling certain criteria. This is encouraging as it  shows that skeptic complaints can be very effective in getting regulatory bodies to act.

• The Society of Homeopaths - Fruits of Hubris (3 March 2018) UK Homeopathy Regulation blog 
• Better monitoring of homeopaths advertising CEASE therapy for autism in the UK - hooray (28 Feb 2018) this blog

I have written to the Society of Homeopaths about their members who are promoting CEASE therapy

Last updated: 12 September 2018, changelog is at the end

Below is a redacted version of the email I sent on 9 November 2017 to the Society of Homeopaths (SoH) about some of their registered members. These homeopaths are referencing a treatment whose name alone implies that it can treat autism - CEASE stands for Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression. Some of them are making other claims about autism (and other conditions) too.

I am not sure what the SoH can do as it would seem a bit strange for them to ask people to stop using the name of the treatment (but I think it should be renamed), but I hope at least that they'll ask their members not to make other claims about autism at least.

After writing to the SoH I set up a tracker on each of the relevant pages (using https://www.changedetection.com/) which reports back to me if a page has been changed. So far only one page has been in any way amended.

The Society of Homeopaths' Register of homeopaths is accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). Accreditation makes no consideration of the fact that homeopathy doesn't really work - yes it is quite an odd situation. The PSA is "just there to make sure that, if someone's practicing in one of these fields, they're meeting the standards that the body representing that field demands" - I suspect the homeopaths below are not doing that and they're overclaiming how they can help people with autism.

While there are some efforts ongoing to get this inexplicable accreditation rescinded my main interest is just in getting misleading health claims removed.

Please don't go looking up the homeopaths' details from the info below and hassling them. It's not really about individual homeopaths but about problems across the entire sector. There are plenty of people making similar claims, these are just some test cases.

-----------------------
Hello

A number of your members seem to be implying on their websites that they are able to eliminate autism.

The use of the term 'CEASE', or worse, writing it out in full ("Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression") implies that autism can be 'stopped' or 'eliminated' by following the treatment protocol. This would seem to go against #41 and #47 of your 2015 code of ethics "...No promise of cure, either implicit or explicit, should be made of any named disease...". Also concerning is that some of these websites refer unhelpfully to mistaken anxieties about vaccination and autism. They also make claims about other named health conditions.

I hope that you will consider asking the following people to stop making these implied claims, particularly those about eliminating autism, and look forward to your reply.

Thank you

Jo

1. Homeopath One (homepage)

• "I am a professionally trained classical Homoeopath and registered member of The Society of Homoeopaths." - text remains in June 2018, July 2018
• "CEASE THERAPY means COMPLETE ELIMINATION OF AUTISTIC SPECTRUM EXPRESSION." - claim remains in June 2018, July 2018
• "The Second Component is ISOTHERAPY which is the homeopathic version of the specific obstacle to cure..." - claim remains in June 2018, July 2018
• In the section "What can homeopathy be used for?" a shopping list of conditions is given, the most serious of which include asthma, psoriasis and bronchitis - surely these should be under the care of a GP? No mention is made on that page about seeking medical advice. 
  - text remains in June 2018, July 2018

December update: no change has been made
June 2018 update: still no change has been made - still SoH member, still claiming to eliminate autism
July 2018 update: as for June

Homeopath Two (About Me page and another page on CEASE therapy)

• "I am registered with The Society of Homeopaths, which is the largest organisation registering professional homeopaths in Europe. I practise in accordance with The Society’s Code of Ethics and Practice..." - text remains in June 2018, July 2018
• "I am one of the few specially trained and qualified homeopaths to offer CEASE Therapy (Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression) which is a very effective and safe way to treat conditions arising in Autistic spectrum. It combines homeopathy and nutritional supplements alongside a gentle, structured detoxification.  This protocol has been not only been successful in treating people on the Autistic Spectrum but also people suffering from a variety of other chronic conditions. For more information about CEASE click [redacted]." - text no longer has "Complete Elimination..." written out in full in June 2018 // As of July 2018 the new text now reads "I am a qualified CEASE practitioner and as such an specially trained and experienced in the use of protocols devised by the late Dr. Tinus Smits.  It was originally desiged to help children medically diagnosed with Autism but has been found to have a much wider use in practice".

Linked above is [Homeopath 2]'s page about CEASE therapy [redacted link], there are some potentially problematic claims there too [this page was removed on or before June 2018]

• "The treatment of Autism, Autistic Spectrum Diseases and other Modern Diseases with Homeopathy"
• "The CEASE approach to treating autism…."
• "[Tinus Smits - inventor of CEASE]...successfully treated over 300 autistic children, many of whom totally recovered from autism [emphasis added - what is this meant to imply if not that CEASE can help people 'recover from' autism?]. All of those treated saw improvements in their symptoms and consequently their quality of life and that of their families."
• "The CEASE Therapy consists of systematic detoxification and elimination of causative factors that contribute to the illness, which can include vaccinations, medications, environmental toxins." - unhelpfully implying that autism might be linked with vaccinations
• "Follow this link to Tinus Smit’s website to read about some of his successful cases: [Official CEASE Therapy website page on successful cases redacted]" - again it is difficult to see how anything other than a cure is implied by this web address and its framing in the text on this website

December update: no change has been made
June 2018 update: CEASE page has been removed, wording about it changed on About Me - still SoH member, amended claims about treating autism, now treating 'conditions arising IN autis[m]'. Removed text referring to CEASE in full. 
July 2018 update: changes to the text in 'About Me', no return of removed page

Homeopath Three (homepage)

• "I am registered with the Society of Homeopaths..." - text was removed by Dec 2017
• "I am also a qualified CEASE therapist. CEASE stands for Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression and it is a step by step detox program using homeopathic remedies and supplements to remove the autistic qualities. You can read more about it here: [Official CEASE Therapy website redacted]" - other than writing out the term CEASE in full to imply the treatment can 'remove the autistic qualities' this website simply links to a separate website which is much more able to make claims than UK marketers are usually permitted. The linked website repeats the misinformation about links between vaccines and autism.
  - text remains in June 2018, July 2018

December update: the reference to their registration with the Society of Homeopaths has been removed.
June 2018 update: no change since December. Apparently no longer an SoH member (or still a member but no longer announcing that fact), still claiming to 'remove the autistic qualities' with CEASE. 
July 2018 update: I have received confirmation from the Society of Homeopaths that this homeopath is no longer registered with them. Their misleading text remains.

Homeopath Four (Qualifications page)

• "...I am a fully insured member of the society of homeopaths, working to their strict code of ethics and best practice levels." - text remains in June 2018, July 2018
• "I am also qualified as a CEASE therapist. Cease stands for Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression and therapy is an effective a way of treating autism through elimination of causative toxic exposures such as vaccines and regular medication." - text remains in June 2018, July 2018, Sep 2018 (how hard would it be to not imply that CEASE can treat autism?)

Another page on this site [redacted link] says

• "I BELIEVE HOMEOPATHY TO BE THE MOST POWERFUL AND BALANCING FORM OF MEDICINE AVAILABLE. IT GETS TO THE ROOT OF AN ILLNESS TO ENABLE A LASTING CURE." - text remains in June 2018, July 2018
• Below that is a section on "conditions that patients have consulted" the homeopath for which include a number of serious ones such as psoriasis, herpes, thyroid problems and endometriosis. - text remains in June 2018, July 2018

December update: no change has been made
June 2018 update: no change. Still an SoH member, still claiming to 'treat' autism, and linking it to vaccination.
July 2018 update: as June 2018.

Homeopath Five

• "I am registered with the Society of Homeopaths..." - text remains in June 2018, July 2018
• "I am a certified "Cease Therapist" treating children with Autism and Autism Spectrum problems." - text remains in June 2018, July 2018

December update: no change has been made
June 2018 update: no change. Still an SoH member, still claiming to treat children with autism.
July 2018 update: as June 2018.

changelog



Edit: 5 Jan 2018 - while looking up the tweet sent to me by UKHomeopathyReg (see comment below post) I spotted that s/he had just published another post today about the SoH which is pretty interesting: Antipathy Towards the Advertising Standards Authority #3

Regarding the post above, I'm not sure what to do next - hardly any no text has changed seven two months on, people who are members of the SoH are still making these claims about autism.


Edit: 28 Feb 2018 - the Professional Standards Authority, who accredit the Society of Homepaths' register has taken some rather positive action on this matter.

Edit 2 June 2018 - the Society of Homeopaths (SoH) has now published its position statement on its members marketing and use of CEASE therapy. The news item implies that CEASE is a powerful detoxing tool (oh dear) but the actual statement says that members should not claim to treat autism and it looks like they're not allowed to write out the full name of the treatment either. I've also re-checked the website of each homeopath below again and provided an update.

Edit 15 July 2018 - I did another sweep / check before writing back to the SoH. I've also created a new Wikipedia page on CEASE therapy.

I've had it up to here with homeopaths marketing CEASE therapy quackery for autism

CEASE stands for 'Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression' - a name that belies its intention, despite advertising regulations.

— Jo Brodie (@JoBrodie) November 6, 2017

Marketers cannot claim #homeopathy can treat or help w autism but they can link to official websites that do, & write acronyms out in full.

— Jo Brodie (@JoBrodie) November 6, 2017

UK homeopaths are not allowed to make misleading claims about homeopathy (no marketer is allowed to make misleading claims about any product or service). We have a fairly strange situation with the marketing of CEASE therapy in the UK though, which I have written about before, in passing, in October 2016 and July 2015.

CEASE stands for 'Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression' - a name that belies its intention despite advertising regulations. As marketers are allowed to write out acronyms in full they are able to strongly (and wrongly) imply that the treatment can help people (typically children) who have autism.

I shan't link to it but there's an official CEASE therapy website which has recently been strongly criticised by the Dutch equivalent of the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). However that website, not being hosted in the UK, is more able to ignore the ASA's requirements for advertising. Homeopaths around the world who have completed the CEASE training can also have a page about them in the practitioners section of the website.

UK homeopaths can therefore bypass advertising regulations while still obliquely promoting CEASE as a treatment for autism by
(i) avoiding making direct claims about homeopathy, CEASE and autism on their websites (some of them instead say that the ASA forbids them from making certain claims, or that the ASA has told them to remove certain claims etc)
(ii) spell out the acronym CEASE in full
(iii) link to the official CEASE page which is currently free-er to make claims. That is, defer the actual marketing to another site
(iv) leave page visitors to draw the hoped-for conclusion

Basically it's "I can't say anything about this treatment (or I'll get in trouble with the ASA) but go and have a look at this website that can say stuff and then come back here and make an appointment." As an added bonus the sites often talk about detoxing from vaccinations, thereby maintaining the background anxiety that autism and vaccinations are linked in some way (they're not).

I would like to see the term 'CEASE' ceased and no longer used in marketing, also no more linking to the 'cease-therapy' website. Ideally the homeopathy professional societies would sanction their members for implying any treatment was useful for autism.

~oOo~    •••    ~oOo~

Teddington Homeopathy (Melissa Wakeling) has been on the ASA's non-compliant list of online advertisers since August 2015 for failing to make all the required corrections to her marketing of CEASE therapy. She did make a few changes, but the website still makes misleading claims.

Interestingly one of the criticisms in the original adjudication was that Teddington Homeopathy linked to two websites which contained problematic phrases in their URLs (web addresses). Here's what the ASA said -

"The page also contained links to external websites containing "homeopathy-for-autism" and "homeopathy-and-autism-faq" in the visible URLS..."

and

"We welcomed Teddington Homeopathy's decision to remove the testimonial and other material from the page, but considered that the information about Tinus Smits and the URLs still implied a benefit for homeopathy and CEASE therapy for autism, and that the intention of CEASE therapy was to treat autism."

Comparing what the page was like on 23 December 2013 and currently (screenshots below) shows that some changes have indeed been made, though the current version is at pains to imply that they haven't.

Teddington Homeopathy's page on CEASE therapy in 2013 before the ASA made them change it.

Teddington Homeopathy's page on CEASE therapy after amendments were made, in line with ASA's requirements. As not all the amendments have been made yet the site has been listed as a non-compliant online advertiser.

The Society of Homeopaths has noted in their 2016 annual report that CEASE therapy was something that a lof of their members were keen to learn about, as part of their continuing professional development... obviously I'd prefer that they take to task their members who are promoting a non-therapy to vulnerable families.