Wham, Bam, Autism Scam: Pew pew Autism lasers

Bronwyn Rideout - 25 November 2024

In early August, MediaWatch in Australia released a segment about low-level laser therapy, an Autism treatment now available in Queensland, that had been profiled in local media as successful in helping non-speaking Autistic children speak.

This treatment is offered by Dr Genevieve Dharamaraj, a chiropractor with both Bachelor of Science and Master of Chiropractic degrees, with one being a specialised degree in paediatric chiropractic care. However, I cannot confirm if Genevieve has a PhD or an MD; the title of Doctor is not a protected term in Australia, and Chiropractors are permitted to use it. However, some chiropractic practices advise practitioners to not present themselves as having an MD or PhD, and to advertise as Dr So-and-so (Chiropractor). Genevieve does present herself as being accredited in childhood neurology, and as a Fellow of Childhood Developmental Disorders - courtesy of the International Board of Functional Neuroscience.

That sounds fancy, but functional neurology is a chiropractic specialty based on the principle of the central integrated state - the ability of a nerve to fire being due to activating and inhibiting inputs. Through functional neurology, it is supposedly possible to improve abnormalities in the nervous system through sensory and cognitive-based therapies to promote plasticity and optimisation. But, it may be the subject of controversy even within the chiropractic field, as implied by this restrained review by Anne-Laure Meyer and Charlotte Leboeuf-Yde; you know it’s bad when chiropractors are getting skeptical about its therapeutic claims, and casting a side-eye or two at the need to attend multiple seminars hosted by private organisations.

So what is Dharamaraj shilling? Her service offers an initial consult and functional neurological examination, from which a personalised plan is created (and this “personalisation” is possibly why no price list is offered on the website). There’s a 12-week home and aftercare program, and recommendations for additional treatments at Dharamaraj’s clinic, which include but are not limited to digital therapy (i.e. VR gaming), laser therapy, interactive metronome therapy, and sessions with an exercise physiologist. In the videos and images shared on social media, children may get put into a room with red lights and have low-level lasers directed at specific body parts (laser acupuncture if you will), or need to wear a helmet that just blasts the red light straight on the noggin.

Dharamaraj and her laser

In front of a camera, Dharamaraj keeps her message simple and emphasises that she is using cutting-edge technology, including photobiomodulation. Photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) may be more familiar for its other names: low-level laser therapy, cold laser therapy, or red light therapy. It’s promoted for curing a myriad of health conditions besides Autism. Supposedly PBMT works by boosting mitochondria energy production using red or infrared lights, which improves overall cell health and induces improvements around the cells. Skeptics argue that the complex biochemical cascade is presumptive, and the theory does little to explain how this form of light therapy is more effective than, say, the sun. Further, studies using intact human cadaver heads found that transcranial administration of light was poor compared to animals (4.2% for humans compared to 40% for a mouse) and placement on the skull (11.7% in the occipital region and 0.9% in the temporal region). However, what light could get through was able to penetrate the brain to 24-50mm, depending on the band of light used. Nevertheless, evidence of efficacy in humans is extremely limited, and while low-level lasers won’t burn skin, there are real concerns about mitigating radiation damage to healthy cells through dosing.

Low-level laser therapy with intranasal irradiation to treat rhinitis

Since the discovery of this modality in the mid-1960s, it has been shown that LED lights could also produce similar effects, which is why PBMT is the preferred term over any name containing the word laser. Blogger Jonathan Jarry suggests that there is another explanation for this: LEDs can put out infrared light, and the FDA in the United States does not consider the power level of LEDs to be high enough to be treated as a medical hazard that requires regulation. Thus, there has been a transition amongst the PBMT practitioners from low-level lasers to LEDs, to avoid regulatory bureaucracy.

Dharamaraj is likely using the LZ30-style laser, as it is recommended by Kyle Daigle, who was featured alongside Dharamaraj in the news feature above, and by Dr Melillo, whose Melillo method is what Dharamaraj is using with her clients. While an exact listing of the AVANT LZ30 laser is not included on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods, similar products are listed. The LZ30 lasers are not cheap, costing over $7500 each. Interestingly, the LZ30 is FDA-cleared, which means the company demonstrated that its product was as safe and effective as a similar product already on the market. Genuine lasers or not, this Reddit post will bring you back to reality. The post author alleges that the claims made by Melillo Method adherents about its efficacy might be dubious, as children who appear to be responding positively to the treatment are selected as case-study subjects.

So, lasers be damned! As with any pseudoscientific treatment we’ve come across, for Autism or otherwise, we have to remember that these ‘cures’ or ‘solutions’ are often not used in a vacuum. Rather, they are being used alongside (hopefully) conventional therapies. However, as I’ve shown in the last Wham, Bam, Autism Scams instalment, there can be a tendency to “do all the things” and layer multiple treatment regimens and changes onto a child at once. As a result, changes that may have happened naturally with time, or simply as a result of increasing the amount of time children interact with adults in “therapeutic” settings, are instead attributed to the choice of alternative treatment, in this case lasers.

New Zealand skeptics should shake off any false sense of security they may have that Dharamaraj and her lasers are staying far away in Queensland. The Melillo Method has already made its way to our shores. Currently there are only two certified practitioners in NZ:

The Brain Bloom Room in Hamilton and Untapped Brains in Wanaka both have staff “certified” in the Melillo Method. Hopefully our mainstream and fringe media outlets will avoid making the same mistake Nine in Australia did when they promoted this unproven therapy.