Autism, ADHD and transgenderism: America’s epidemic of fake medical news

America’s health care system is a mess. Its incentives are costing the U.S. a fortune, both in cold hard cash and in real damage to human health. Nowhere is this more pernicious than in children’s health: The rise in autism, ADHD and transgender diagnoses appears to be driven by profit motive taking advantage of social pathologies.

While the capitalist, free-market system is superior to any socialist or single-payer system in promoting innovation and matching supply to demand, it malfunctions when there is an information gap between provider and customer.

In children’s care, the information advantage medical professionals have over parents is particularly dangerous. Not only can an unscrupulous doctor or psychologist play on a parents’ fears and feelings of protectiveness, reluctance to accept diagnosis and treatment could become grounds for accusations of child neglect and abuse.

Are elements of the health care industry engaged in a cynical money grab at the expense of children? The evidence points to “Yes.”

The Economist found ADHD diagnoses in the U.S. more than double the rate found in other developed nations. Not surprisingly, ADHD has a much higher prevalence among children who grow up in higher-income areas. That fact alone is evidence there is something rotten in the system. (Worth noting: diagnoses are 14 percent higher on Halloween. That’s not science, that’s a sugar rush.)

An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal recently detailed how a 1970s disability law ended up incentivizing more positive diagnoses, including of autism. Schools get more federal and state funds when higher numbers of children are identified as “disabled.” Medicaid and Social Security pay more benefits to adults as well.

Is the health care system just making things up? No, it’s more insidious than that. The definitions have changed to broaden the market. Autism and ADHD used to be “Yes-No” diagnoses. Not anymore: now there is a “spectrum.” Just stumble over a couple of key metrics and you’ve made it onto the list.

Granted, any medical disorder has degrees, whether mental health issues or heart attacks. But surgeons don’t perform open-heart surgery for a mild heart attack. The spectrum for autism and ADHD leads to a simple “Yes” on the disability bingo card. And the numbers show the spectrum has served the purpose of expanding the number of patients far beyond what is experienced in other nations with sophisticated health care systems.

Far fewer children have been herded into the world of transgenderism, but that world is much more profitable. Surgery can cost up to $75,000, and that’s not including puberty blockers, hormone treatment and counseling.

The transgender world is also worse because of the evidence-free contention that gender is a “social construct.” In other words, you can be anything you want. Of course, you can imagine yourself a different gender, but you can’t imagine yourself with different genitals — you have to pay for that.

Diagnosis and treatment are not standardized. The fact that some people detransition calls into question evaluation procedures. Although detransition is claimed to be a low number, that may not be the case. A 2022 study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism pointed to an “increase in numbers of persons presenting for gender-affirming care [and] reduced proportion of [transgender] people receiving an adequate mental health evaluation” as reason to believe that “low reported rates of detransition and regret in previous populations will no longer apply to current populations.”

I could not find a study that tracks transgenderism in children by income, but the incidence of claimed transgenderism in children tracks closely with political ideology (although the correlation is not exact).

Overlaying these issues are problems in American society — specifically, the desire for victimhood.

If you are on the spectrum or suffering from gender dysmorphia, you are a victim. Your parents are victims by proxy. And being a victim has become a coveted mark of social status, particularly on the left (but creeping into the right at times). Being on the spectrum or trans serves psychological needs beyond victimhood: it makes you special. You are part of a select group of people who are owed pity by society — and money. You’re not the much-dreaded “normie.”

Parents get to escape responsibility for the problems of their children. It’s not bad parenting, it’s a syndrome. Even more importantly, parents can hand their child pills and dump them off on a therapist.

It should be kept in mind that there are indeed children with autism, ADHD and gender issues. And Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is probably right that the American diet has too much sugar in it, is too focused on ultra-processed food, includes too many dubious dyes, chemicals and additives, and poses real health risks. But the cure for many children is not avoiding the measles vaccine, nor is it taking drugs, going to therapy or getting drastic and expensive surgery. The cure is nothing, because there really is nothing wrong with them.

(Note: the measles vaccine is not a health risk. No rigorous study with large samples shows a relationship between the vaccine and autism, and, no, Amish children are not immune to autism — and many do get vaccinated. Not getting the measles shot is the real health risk.)

The unhappy bottom line is that healthy children are not profitable. And while most doctors are ethical, not every doctor is — that’s the case for all professions.

When it comes to children’s health, it is long past time for our elected officials to demand that real, factual, transparent science rule the day. The U.S. must put an end to profit-motivated, politically inspired quackery.

Keith Naughton is co-founder of Silent Majority Strategies, a public and regulatory affairs consulting firm, and a former Pennsylvania political campaign consultant.

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