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The ADD/ADHD Crime
  ADD and ADHD commentary on our times and lives
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    The Inhuman ADD/ADHD Crime

    Homo nobilis, stellaris
    Here is another prediction which I had first made in 1985, and which is now coming true on a large scale, exactly as predicted. In 1985 I had predicted that our new borns would be not only progressively more sickly, and eventually not viable - but that their mental health would deteriorate progressively as well.

    I had also extended this prediction to the mental health of the population at large - that our society would become increasingly violent and irrational - and this includes our national leadership. And I had worried about a president with a mild and all but unnoticeable form of ADHD perhaps, and the power to launch a nuclear war. I am standing by my predictions - and I am worried more than ever now.

    When I was a kid and in school, there were no kids with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, there were no kids with leukemia, there were no kids with diabetes, and there were no kids with cancer. And it is not that I grew up in a small sheltered place. I grew up in Berlin, Germany, in an area with a dozen huge apartment blocks each covering a whole city block, and I knew hundreds of kids. And in large part because of the war and the evacuation of mothers and kids from Berlin, I obtained my 12 years of education in 10 different schools as we were moved around the country. Not once did I see or ever know of a child with ADD or ADHD.

    ADD/ADHD is now becoming epidemic among our children. 1.6 million children in the US are now affected with ADHD (The Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter - Posted Feb. 3rd 2003; see below), and their number has tripled within the decade from 1987 to 1996 (Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, Feb. 2003). This increase will - mark my words - continue to rise exponentially. Eventually, and within a few generations, our society will be non-viable.

    The unimaginable tragedy is that all this is due to the deliberate studied ignorance of our biomedical and agricultural sciences. They have deemed - and just because the amounts are so miniscule, and without any investigation whatsoever - that well over 60 trace elements found in all living organisms are non-essential; nothing more than a bit of environmental contamination like a few molecules of soil from a baked potato.

    Consequently, and instead of the complete range of the 72 nutritional trace elements, our agriculture only monitors and maintains a paltry 8 trace elements in its soils, hence in all of its products, and hence again, in our daily food. Due to this studied ignorance and neglect, well over 60 vitally important trace elements have become exhausted, and are now severely deficient in our daily food.

    This is the cause of ADD/ADHD, and the horrendous crime of our biomedical, agricultural and nutritional 'experts' who have thus managed to condemn over one-one-half million of our children to a life lived in a violent whirl of meaningless action.

    And this could be ended so quickly, so simply, so cheaply and so effectively just by re-establishing the complete natural range of the 72 trace elements in our daily food. If pushed hard, as described in these pages, we could have it in one year - and our children will have their birthright to a healthy body and mind again. But academia remains firmly entrenched in the perpetuated ignorance of 150 years ago, and continues to raise a dismissive eyebrow of exalted hubris over these 'unorthodox' notions - although nature has done this ever since the beginning of Life on this Earth.





    Here are some summaries of recent articles:



    Expert Explores Psychosocial Interventions for ADHD

    According to experts at the Duke University Medical Center, the number of elementary school-aged children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has risen steadily during the last ten years. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that as many as 1.6 million children carry an ADHD diagnosis. Methods for dealing with this growing problem have focused on medication. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reveals that prescriptions for pharmacologic agents to treat ADHD have increased 500 percent since 1991.
    [ from The Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter - Posted 02/03/2003 ]




    Study Reveals Increase in Children Taking Psychiatric Drugs

    The number of children and adolescents being treated with psycho-tropic medication for psychiatric disorders nearly tripled from 1987 to 1996, according to an article published in this month's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

    In the article, "Psychotropic Patterns for Youth," researchers examined changes in the full spectrum of psychotropic medication treatment for youths over a decade. They found that substantial increases in the use of psychotropic medications by youths included increases for most classes of medication.

    Researchers noted that since 1991 there has been a rapid growth in the use of drugs known as alpha-agonists, neuroleptics, and "mood stabilizer" anticonvulsants.

    Although drugs used to treat psychiatric disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have received widespread attention in the past decade, the extent of medication treatment for youths receiving care in the community has not been reliably reported, researchers said.

    Researchers analyzed treatment data on 900,000 youths under 20 enrolled in Medicaid programs in two states (one in the Midwest and one in the mid-Atlantic region) and in a health maintenance organization (HMO).

    In 1996, the prevalence of any psychotropic medication use among youths younger than 20 was similar (5.9 percent to 6.3 percent) across all three sites, with stimulants and anti-depressants consistently ranked first and second among categories of medication, said researchers. The researchers attribute the relatively high use of antidepressants to the growing popularity of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). [ from Mental Health Weekly; posted 02/03/2003 ]




    Psychiatric Impairment More Likely in Children With ADHD

    Children with ADHD from psychiatric and pediatric practices display similar levels of ADHD symptoms, comorbidity with mood, anxiety and disruptive behavior disorders, and cognitive, interpersonal and academic impairments, Massachusetts researchers report.

    Betsy Busch, M.D., of Tufts University School of Medicine, and colleagues evaluated 522 children and adolescents, six to 18 years of age, with (N=280) and without (N=242) DSM-III-R ADHD who were recruited from pediatric and psychiatric clinics in a tertiary care hospital and a health maintenance organization. Using a case-control study design, the investigators sought to determine whether comorbidity and other clinical correlates of ADHD would differ among the two settings.

    Participants were assessed with standardized measures of psychiatric, cognitive, social, academic and family function.

    The investigators report striking similarities in the number, type, clusters and age at onset of ADHD symptoms among children from pediatric and psychiatric practices. They note that children with ADHD were significantly more likely than those without the attentional disorder to have a higher prevalence of mood disorders, other disruptive behavior, anxiety disorders and substance use disorders, regardless of ascertainment source. The investigators further report similarities in impairments of intellectual, academic, interpersonal and family functioning.

    "These findings underscore the importance of the role of pediatricians and primary care providers in recognizing comorbid disorders and dysfunctions among children with ADHD," say the authors. "Physicians who treat children and adolescents with ADHD should be aware that the recognition of comorbid disorders and dysfunctions among these patients and appropriate intervention could have a substantial impact on the future of millions of affected children and their families."

    Busch B, Biederman J, Glassner Cohen L, et al.: Correlates of ADHD among children in pediatric and psychiatric clinics. Psychiatric Services 2002; 53:1103-1111. [ from The Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter - posted 01/06/2003 ]







     
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    INTRO | SUPREME HEALTH | POISON-FREE AGRICULTURE | STABLE CLIMATES | VIBRANT BIOSPHERE | PROGRESSIVE COMPLEXITY | COMMENTARY
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