Study: A Link Between Pesticides and ADHD

Source: Time Magazine

Studies linking environmental substances to disease are coming fast and furious. Chemicals in plastics and common household goods have been associated with serious developmental problems, while a long inventory of other hazards are contributing to rising rates of modern ills: heart disease, obesity, diabetes, autism.

Add attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to the list. A new study in the journal Pediatrics associates exposure to pesticides to cases of ADHD in the U.S. and Canada. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 4.5 million children ages 5 to 17 have ever been diagnosed with ADHD, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and rates of diagnosis have risen 3% a year between 1997 and 2006. Increasingly, research suggests that chemical influences, perhaps in combination with other environmental factors — like video gaming, hyperkinetically edited TV shows and flashing images in educational DVDs aimed at infants — may be contributing to the increase in attention problems.(See pictures of inside a school for autistic children.)

Led by Maryse Bouchard in Montreal, researchers based at the University of Montreal and Harvard University examined the potential relationship between ADHD and exposure to certain toxic pesticides called organophosphates. The team analyzed the levels of pesticide residues in the urine of more than 1,100 children aged 8 to 15 years old, and found that those with the highest levels of dialkyl phosphates, which are the breakdown products of organophosphate pesticides, also had the highest incidence of ADHD. Overall, they found a 35% increase in the odds of developing ADHD with every 10-fold increase in urinary concentration of the pesticide residues. The effect was seen even at the low end of exposure: kids who had any detectable, above-average level of the most common pesticide metabolite in their urine were twice as likely as those with undetectable levels to record symptoms of the learning disorder.

"I was quite surprised to see an effect at lower levels of exposure," says Bouchard, who used data on ADHD from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a long-term study of health parameters of a representative sample of U.S. citizens.(Read how fidgeting can help kids with ADHD learn.)



Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1989564,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

nt

and WRONG.

You've never even tried to give a single ounce of data to back up your claim. So exactly what credentials do you sport that make you an expert in medical science?

because factless smugness is all the rage now.

:thumbsup:

<<crickets>>

Welcome to my ignore list.

... preferably in this lifetime, and soon.

Hekate

if there is no such thing ~ than what I observed in hundreds of children needs to be called -- torture.

Torture for the lovely children that suffered and still struggle as adults.

Most~bright enough to know that even when medicated, they still are viewed by their classmates and friends as "silly" or "crazy."

Torture for their parents and other family members that cried in my office.

Torture for the teachers that wanted to do their best to teach the suffering child as well as their suffering classmates. The entire class struggled.

Torture for the doctors that tried everything they knew how to do for the families.

My heart begs for a cure.

Unless you have a child with ADHD, or know very well such a child and his or her parent, you have no idea the hell this can be.

that this is a very important issue to so many people.

I have no patience for the fools who claim otherwise.

Until they have walked in the shoes of family and others, they can't begin to know the pain.

It isn't an either/or, you know: there can be many children with ADHD while it is simultaneously over-diagnosed with medications being over-prescribed. Anyone who has worked with students or children in this age group has seen many cases of BOTH scenarios.

Neither your generalized, blanket statements ("ADHD does not exist") or your tear jerking, overly-emotional anecdotes manage to effectively address the real issues: figuring the causes for the syndrome (please note, it is NOT a disease: the concept of a "cure" doesn't really apply -- it is a developmental disorder. Early Childhood educators should know and understand the difference.) while simultaneously working against Big Pharma's move to medicate every child on the planet.

Did you know there are doctors around the nation who diagnose ADHD while the child is still in the womb? It's true and a growing practice; if the fetus is jumpy or lively, the child MUST be ADHD. You do understand that every case of hyperactivity and refusal to obey is NOT automatically ADHD, don't you? It is NOT one or the other: ADHD is both a real developmental disorder AND it is radically over-treated with improperly prescribed psycho-pharmaceutical drugs.

http://www.srmhp.org/0201/adhd.html

The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice
SRMHP Home / Spring ~ Summer 2003 Volume 2 Number 1 /
ADHD among American Schoolchildren
Evidence of Overdiagnosis and Overuse of Medication

Authors:
Gretchen B. LeFever and Andrea P. Arcona - Center for Pediatric Research, Eastern Virginia Medical School and Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters
David O. Antonuccio - University of Nevada School of Medicine, Veterans Affairs Sierra Nevada Health Care System.

Author Note:
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Gretchen B. LeFever, Ph.D., Old Dominion University and Safety and Learning Solutions, 912 Queen Elizabeth Drive, Virginia Beach, VA 23452, gblefever@gmail.com.

Abstract:
The 700% increase in psychostimulant use that occurred in the 1990s justifies concern about potential overdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment of child behavior problems. A critical review of epidemiologic research suggests that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is not universally overdiagnosed; however, for some U.S. communities there is evidence of substantial ADHD overdiagnosis, adverse educational outcomes among children treated for the disorder, and suboptimal management of childhood behavior problems. Evidence of ADHD overdiagnosis is obscured when findings are reported without respect to geographic location, race, gender, and age. More sophisticated epidemiologic tracking of ADHD treatment trends and examination of associated outcomes is needed to appreciate the scope of the problem on a national level. Meanwhile, a public health approach to ADHD that includes the development and implementation of data-driven, community-based interventions is warranted and is underway in some communities. Guidelines for promoting judicious use of psychotropic drugs are suggested.

designed to disrupt the nervous system of insects would also do the same in humans!

WHO WOULDA THUNK IT?? :sarcasm:

were not specifically designed to target facets of insect metabolism that humans DO NOT SHARE appear to be the major problem.

Sort of like DDT: WAAAAAYYYYYYY too broad-spectrum.

careful around potent chemicals, that's a big start.

... touting that they were safe and non-toxic around children and pets? :eyes:

Hekate

My heart begs for a cure, please let it be.

you watch the autism thing (which is overdiagnosed) is going to be found to start in utero from food additives, perservatives, pesticides, etc.

OMG we need to BAN these immediately

and therefore, are frequently ignored as silly, but non-problematic daydreamers. They are passive underachievers, but quiet passivity is expected and allowed, even encouraged, in girls.

I finally found out at age 49. I wish wish wish that I had found out sooner, but I had no clue, since I am not hyperactive....more like, the opposite. Someone at work recently told me about her daughter, whom she suspected has ADD, was refused testing by the school, because like most girls, she doesn't conform to the hyperactivity stereotype that mostly describes boys.

... until they do it. In out district it turns out that you can have your own kid tested by a qualified psychologist, but if you do that the school can ignore the results. If the school psych does it, they can't ignore the results. It took me more than six months of quietly insisting before my son got tested for a range of things that might (or might not) be interfering with his performance in elementary school.

ADHD runs through the family in boys -- my sister did a family tree when her son was little, and once you know what you are looking for it pops up all over. But when we were young ourselves in the 50s and 60s no one knew.

As for the girls.... If I had a nickel for every time my mother said I must be passive aggressive because I wasn't making the straight A's she expected, I could have skipped employment and retired early. :blush: Many unpleasant memories. Meanwhile my hyperactive brother got the really negative attention.

Must run; will be back later.

Hekate