For years, science has known that pollution from smokestacks and exhaust pipes can promote diseases, including heart disease and asthma. Now, researchers in Sweden say polluted air also appears to be bad for mental health. The researchers came to their findings by cross-referencing pollution exposure with a registry of dispensed psychiatric medication for children and adolescents in Sweden. The results are persuasive, in part, because the study sampled an unusually large population, around half a million people. In Sweden and other Scandinavian countries, researchers have access to nationwide medication registries, which cover every citizen. The researchers combined this registry with a registry of addresses and with the national model of air pollution. They found that children who live in polluted areas were more likely to have received a dispensed medication for a group of psychiatric illnesses. Results show that for an increase of 10 micrograms per cubic meter in NO2 (nitrous dioxide), the risk of dispensing one of these medications increased by 9 percent. It's comparable to what we've seen for the increase in cardiovascular disease.” While proving a cause is not possible, the results definitely show a link between levels of air pollution and the amounts of psychiatric medications that are being dispensed in these populations. The association remains clear even at very low pollution levels. http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-07-...ween-air-pollution-and-mental-disorders-young
Hey thanks for heads up. But this is different study, from Sweden, while the previous one had been conducted in US.
I repeat the boring comment correlation is not causation. For example, are a significant percentage of those children requiring these medications living in difficult social conditions. Are difficult social conditions more prone to air pollution. Thus, are many/most of these children living near to the factories producing much of the pollution, while their unaffected peers are living in low pollution suburbs? Repeat the scenario building and investigation until alternate possibilities are eliminated.
