ATLANTA -- Children who were given thimerosal-containing vaccines a decade ago showed no causal decline in neuropsychological outcomes by ages seven to 10, CDC researchers here found.
MedPage Today Action Points
- Explain to interested patients that this study, like others, found no causal relationship between exposure to vaccines containing thimerosal, a mercury preservative, and neuropsychological deficits in young children.
- If patients ask, explain that many researchers caution that by choosing not to vaccinate children, parents elevate a now disproved risk above the real risk of being hospitalized or dying of flu or other infection.
ATLANTA, Sept. 26 -- Children who were given thimerosal-containing vaccines or Rh globulins a decade ago showed no causal decline in neuropsychological outcomes by ages seven to 10, CDC researchers here found.
These findings suggested that the early exposure to thimerosal, an ethylmercury-containing preservative in vaccines, does not reduce neuropsychological functioning, William W. Thompson, Ph.D., of the CDC, and colleagues, reported in the Sept. 27 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Among 42 neuropsychological tests assessed, only a few significant associations of any kind were identified, none important, the investigators found. The associations were small. Some were positive and some negative.
The findings came from a study of 1,047 children, seven to 10 years old, from four HMOs that participate in the CDC's Vaccine Safety Datalink.
Birthdates ranged from January 1993 through March 1997. The children were given standardized tests assessing 42 neuropsychological outcomes. However, autism-spectrum disorders were not assessed.
