Quack Exposed: Dan Rossignol

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Dr. Dan Rossignol is married and has two children. Both children are autistic. One Child was born in 2001 and the other was born in 2003. Soon after both sons were diagnosed, their mother, Lanier,  was searching treatments for autism. She reportedly was talking to other parents of autistic children. She as told about supplements and restrictive diets that "helped their children." She has been a nurse practitioner since 1996. 

Background

Dr. Dan Rossignol earned his Doctorate of Medicine and completed his residency at the University of Virginia. He is a board certified physician. Dr. Rossignol concentrates his work in autism, PANS/PANDAS, cerebral palsy and other neurological and developmental disabilities. He started his own practice called Rossignol Medical Center. There are offices in both California and Florida. The location in Florida is Jeff Bradstreet's International Child Development Resource Center. There is no history available about his practice. 

He currently works for the Wisconsin Integrative Hyperbaric Center. 

He is also a member of TACA's physician advisory board. 

In addition, he is on the advisory board of Neuroneeds, a nutrition website selling supplements. 

When Generation Rescue was still working, he served on the science advisory co-chair. 

Rossignol believes that there is a prevalence of mitochondrial disease in autistic children. 

Timeline of Quackery

In 1993, Rossignol completed his Bachelors of Arts in biochemistry at University of Virginia. He was a research assistant to the chemistry department for two summers. 

In 1997, Rossignol completed his doctorate of medicine at the Medical College of Virginia. 

In 2000, Rossignol completed his residency in family medicine at the University of Virginia. He also became a board certified family practice doctor. 

In 2003, Rossignol earned a one year certificate in Biblical Studies at Columbia International University. 

In 2004, Rossignol became involved with ARI and started to believe the quackery that was being presented to him. It started with attending a conference. He was resistant at first. 

Since 2006, Rossignol has published 55 papers, abstracts, editorials and book chapters on autism. This is according to his website. Google scholar lists 37 papers. 

Since 2007, Rossignol has been a follow of American Academy of Family Physicians. 

Since 2011, Rossignol has been the president of MAPS. 

In 2018, Rossignol presented at AutismOne. 

Autism and Mitochondrial Disease

Rossignol and his colleague Richard Frye believes mitochondrial disease and autism are related. Mitochondria is responsible for producing energy from oxygen and food. Because of this energy production, children with mitochondrial disease have a level of dysfunction in high energy organs like the brain. Children who have mitochondrial disease often have normal intelligence, intellectual disability or developmental delay. 

According to a review of 65 studies, Rossignol concluded with Frye that 1 in 20 autistic children has a mitochondrial disease. This was reviewing other studies and not conducting any scientific research themselves. 

This literary review was funded by ARI. Rossignol and Frye both admitted to a possible conflict of interest in the paper. This is because Rossignol has autistic children who have had traditional and integrative treatments. Frye provides testimony that children with mitochondrial disorders may have also been injured by vaccines. This is false information.  

"In our review," Rossignol told Psychiatric News, "there were several published cases of regression into autism and mitochondrial disorder that were associated temporally with vaccination, often in association with fever. However, there is very little published research on this subject."

There are no scientific proof to prove this theory. 

Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber

In 2006, Rossignol completed a paper that was not peer viewed in the Journal Medical Hypothesis. This journal is a forum of idea of medicine and related biomedical sciences. It publishes theoretical papers. It is not a reputable publication. 

The study in question involves 62 autistic children whom have been recruited from 6 clinics. They range from ages 2-7. These children were randomly assigned to 40 hourly treatments of hyperbaric oxygen or a slightly pressurized room air. 

Results were measured by Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC), and other checklists. ATEC was developed by ARI which is a clue in itself. Rossignol claims that 80% if the test group improved and 38% of the control group improved. 

This study was not peer reviewed or in a reputable journal. Checklists completed by parents is anecdotal evidence at best. There is no scientific evidence that this is an effective therapy. This therapy remains unproven. 

Chelation Therapy and Legal Troubles

In 2009, James Coman, a father of an autistic child, sued Rossignol and Dr. Anjum Usman because they provided treatments without proven scientific benefit. The lawsuit says it was expensive and carried risks of serious harm. Coman filed with Cook Circut county. Usman treated Coman's son in Naperville, Ill while Rossignol prescribed treatments by phone without meeting the patient. 

"It's fraud, pure and simple, and they made a lot of money off my family and they're making a lot of money of a lot of families," Coman said.

In addition to the intravenous chelation therapy, there were over 30 different supplements. To Coman's son, chelation had been administered 37 times. Chelation removes heavy metals from the body. Its based on the discredited notion that autism is caused by heavy metals. 

Covid 19 and Autism

TACA recently had an online training with Rossignol on Autism and COVID 19. According to the training: 

There is a unproven claim of autism and COVID 19 overlap in the following areas:

  • low glutathoine
  • mitochondrial dysfunction
  • oxidative stress
  • abnormal cytokines
  • inflammation
  • low vitamin D
Treatments hypothesized :
  • pioglitazone
  • motrin
  • dexamethasone
  • mesenchymal stem cells
  • Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
  • Memantine
  • Pentoxifyiline
  • Montelukast (singulair)
  • Vitamin D
  • Quercetin
  • N-acetylcysteine
  • melatonin
  • astaxanthm
  • chinese medicine
  • resveratrol
  • green teas and black tea polyphenols
  • curcumin
  • omega 3
  • lithium
  • glycyrrhizin
  • magnesium
  • elderberry
  • zinc
Half of these proprosed "treatments" of both autism and COVID 19 are prescribed medication, a handful are supplements and other biomedical treatments that TACA has been pushing on autistic children for years. Rossignol claimed that there have been studies done on these BUT there are none to be found that can prove any of his theories. 

Sources:

https://rossignolmedicalcenter.com/doctors/dr-dan-rossignol/

https://www.wisconsinhyperbarics.com/physician_profile.html

https://www.journals.elsevier.com/medical-hypotheses

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2662857/

https://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/pn.46.6.psychnews_46_6_18_1

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/TheLaw/doctors-sued-autism-chelation-therapy/story?id=10045951

https://www.neuroneeds.com/scientific-medical-advisory-committee/dan-rossignol-m-d/

https://europepmc.org/article/pmc/pmc3865379

https://peoplepill.com/people/dan-rossignol/

https://www.autismvisionco.org/post/covid-and-autism

https://web.archive.org/web/20190118132717if_/http://www.generationrescue.org/who-we-are#scientific-advisory-board

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