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To the Editor:

I am a clinical psychologist who has been working with children and their families since 1977, and I have been disturbed by the progression of chronic disease in children and adults since 1990. Over the past 35 years there has been a linear progression of autoimmune diseases, allergies, psychiatric and neurological conditions including autism and autism spectrum disorders, and obesity. Sixty percent of Americans are affected by chronic disease. The cost of treating this epidemic is 4.3 trillion dollars, 5 times our military budget. Children are taking medications for medical and psychiatric conditions which did not exist when I was growing up and which were not diagnostic classifications when I was in graduate school. These disorders and classifications are a function not of better diagnosis but rather of factors which have not been publicly addressed. Bewilderingly, there has been no expression of concern in medicine, media, or government about children in the United States being statistically the sickest children on the planet. Only one public figure, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as an Independent candidate for the Presidency, is prioritizing confronting this tragedy which is depressing and financially unsustainable.

Please vote for prioritization of our health in November.

 

Randal Robinson PhD

Columbia, Tn.