American Journal of Preventive Medicine
Volume 25, Issue 2 , Pages 101-106 , August 2003

Autism and thimerosal-containing vaccines: Lack of consistent evidence for an association

  • Paul Stehr-Green, DrPH, MPH

      Affiliations

    • Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington (Stehr-Green), Seattle, Washington, USA
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress correspondence to: Paul Stehr-Green, DrPH, MPH, Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, 6305 Blue Mountain Road, Port Angeles WA 98362, USA.
    • ,
  • Peet Tull

      Affiliations

    • National Board of Health and Welfare (Tull), Stockholm, Sweden
    • ,
  • Michael Stellfeld, MD

      Affiliations

    • Statens Serum Institut (Stellfeld), Copenhagen, Denmark
    • ,
  • Preben-Bo Mortenson, DrMedSC

      Affiliations

    • National Centre for Register-Based Research (Mortenson), Aarhus, Denmark
    • ,
  • Diane Simpson, MD, PhD

      Affiliations

    • National Immunization Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Simpson), Atlanta, Georgia, USA

References 

  1. Ball LK, Ball R, Pratt RD. An assessment of Thimerosal use in childhood vaccines. Pediatrics. 2001;107:1147–1154
  2. Grandjean P, Weihe P, White RF, et al.  Cognitive deficit in 7-year-old children with prenatal exposure to methylmercury. Neurotoxicol Teratol. 1997;19:417–428
  3. Blaxill M. Rising incidence of autism: association with Thimerosal. In: Institute of Medicine. Thimerosal-containing vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders. Washington DC: National Academy Press, 2001:49–50
  4. American Psychiatric Association . Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 4th ed. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association; 1994;
  5. California Department of Developmental Services. Changes in the population of persons with autism and pervasive developmental disorders in California’s Developmental Services System: 1987 through 1998. Sacramento CA: California Health and Human Services Agency, 1999
  6. Madsen KM, Lauritsen MB, Pedersen CB, et al. Thimerosal and the occurrence of autism: negative ecological evidence from Danish population-based data. Pediatrics 2003. In press
  7. Gillberg C, Steffenburg S, Schaumann H. Is autism more common now than ten years ago?. Br J Psychiatry. 1991;158:403–409
  8. Gillberg C. Infantile autism and other childhood psychoses in a Swedish urban region. Epidemiologic aspects. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1984;25:35–43
  9. Nordin V, Gillberg C. Autism spectrum disorders in children with physical or mental disability or both. I (clinical and epidemiological aspects). Dev Med Child Neurol. 1996;38:297–313
  10. Morgenstern H. Uses of ecological analyses in epidemiologic research. Am J Public Health. 1982;72:1336–1344
  11. Institute of Medicine . Thimerosal-containing vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders. Washington DC: National Academy Press; 2001;

☆ Address reprint requests to: Diane Simpson, MD, National Immunization Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, Mailstop E-62, Atlanta GA 30333.The full text of this article is available via AJPM Online at www.ajpm-online.net.

PII: S0749-3797(03)00113-2

doi: 10.1016/S0749-3797(03)00113-2

American Journal of Preventive Medicine
Volume 25, Issue 2 , Pages 101-106 , August 2003

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