Are Teen Neurodevelopmental Disorders Caused by Vaccines and Other Toxins being Masked by Big Pharma as “Mental Health” Disorders?

American teenagers are drowning in a rising tide of disorders: behavioral issues, sensory problems, depression, self-harm and more. The medical-pharmaceutical industry has rushed to brand all of these problems as mental health conditions treatable with profit-generating drugs. Few are talking about the broader neurodevelopmental crisis—triggered in part by environmental toxins such as the mercury and aluminum in vaccines—that is sabotaging children’s neurodevelopment and sapping adolescent resilience. Why do children and teens currently have such high levels of mental and neurologic dysfunction? Although the pro-Pharma health care system in the U.S. makes it socially taboo to say so, vaccines and other pharmaceutical products are some of the most likely culprits. As has been discussed in other World Mercury Project articles about children’s health, this supposition is backed by sound science. However, if Big Pharma gets their way, mental illness will become “a normal and acceptable part of childhood,” conveniently letting the manufacturers and purveyors of environmental toxins, such as vaccines, off the hook.

Studies Link Heavy Metals to the Explosion of Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Declining IQ in American Children

A “silent pandemic of neurodevelopmental toxicity” is disabling a generation of children around the world. This is the verdict of neurology experts Philippe Grandjean and Philip Landrigan in a 2014 report in Lancet Neurology. The staggering tsunami of developmental disabilities now affects at least one in six children in the U.S. and millions more worldwide. Two new studies suggest that the most common of these illnesses—autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and tics—are related to each other and may share common causation. The culprit? Environmental toxins, particularly heavy metals. About 11% (or one in nine 4-17-year-olds) have received an ADHD diagnosis—and in some states, as many as 19%. The most recent ASD estimates in the U.S., from 2014 data, report a prevalence of one in 45 children, representing a “significant increase” compared to 2011–2013. Adding to the worry, scientists and physicians are increasingly seeing children with multiple neurodevelopmental disorders. Children with “comorbid diagnoses” (i.e., more than one disorder) often have “greater levels of emotional, behavioral and educational impairment and the need for more intensive treatment.” Notably, ASD and ADHD frequently co-occur. The current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) recognizes this trend by allowing for a combined diagnosis, whereas prior versions (DSM-IV and DSM-IV-TR) barred simultaneous ADHD and ASD diagnoses.