Last week, we introduced the concept of overdiagnosis in prostate cancer screening. It didn’t take long for the issue to rear its head again as the Telegraph reported ‘Why autism and ADHD self-diagnosis may be inaccurate‘, and ‘ADHD and autism referrals are up fivefold since the pandemic‘.
These reports are based on a recent Nuffield Trust report, which “shows that there might be as many as 1.2 million autistic people and 2.2 million people with ADHD in England”. Furthermore, in December 2023, there were 172,022 patients with suspected autism waiting to be seen – the highest number ever reported and five times higher than the 32,220 waiting in 2019.
According to the Telegraph, experts blame “diagnostic creep”. An NHS task force is investigating the problem. “NHS England has also begun important work into investigating challenges in ADHD service provision and last month launched a cross sector task force alongside Government, to help provide a joined-up approach for the growing numbers of people coming forward for support.”
At the TTE office, we decided to try out the AQ test, developed by Cambridge researchers in 2001 and popularised by Wired magazine. Here’s a link to the test.
Here at TTE, we hit near the threshold because we scored highly on questions such as “Are you fascinated by numbers?” People also often tell us that we’d keep going on and on about the same thing – take excess deaths as one example. And we frequently find it difficult to work out people’s intentions – we have no idea what the WHO is up to in its latest treaty. The difference between answering definitely or slightly agreeing is enough to tip you over the edge.
Diagnostic creep is a phenomenon where the diagnostic threshold is expanded to include ambiguous or very mild symptoms. Overselling promotes adult autism by moving the line that separates normal from abnormal – people with milder and milder symptoms get diagnosed. While the symptoms may be intense or debilitating for a minority, they are mild or fleeting for most.
People on the waiting list report they want a formal diagnosis of ADHD or autism; they just want to know. However, reports say they are not looking for medical treatment, be it prescriptions or talking therapies; they’re looking for “validation and recognition”.
But the consequence of diagnostic creep is disease-mongering. Widening the diagnostic boundaries allows aggressive public promotion to expand the markets for treatment. As an example, ADHD prescribing has risen by 50% over the last five years.
With 3.4 million potential patients, that’s a lot of drugs to sell to people who may never benefit and often will be harmed. And if you think healthcare can meet such demand, then think again.
Dr. Carl Heneghan is the Oxford Professor of Evidence Based Medicine and Dr. Tom Jefferson is an epidemiologist based in Rome who works with Professor Heneghan on the Cochrane Collaboration. This article was first published on their Substack, Trust The Evidence, which you can subscribe to here.
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So as the dominos continue to slowly fall and vaccine compensation and ongoing treatment bills rise who’s going to be the first to revoke the indemnity given to these companies?
Starmer has an open goal as he could say that he was only supportive based on the (limited) information the Tories were passing on.
Also if depopulation is the long term agenda what better way of achieving it than bankrupting major drug producers by passing on these bills
There appears to be a red arrow troll on this site.
I believe Starmer, with the WHO and Blair far up his b******* would instigate harsher lockdowns and “vaccine” mandates at the drop of a hat come the next “pandemic” of fear.
Bankrupting, although I prefer the word liquidating, all of bigpharma would imho, actually benefit the whole of mankind – especially the so called civilised west.
I believe that too. The whole system is broken and corrupted and the so called ‘regulators’ like MHSA need to be shut down and rebuilt from scratch.
How about shut down and not rebuilt?
100% of all government and its agencies are influenced and corrupted for the benefit of an interest group. Every single one Without exception.
The fewer of them we have the better.
I’m sure he would…
However the “political” decision here and now is to revoke it and blame it on the Tories…
Agreed, and so would the Raven Pub Landlord in Bath. Starmer showed unwilling to listen to his concerns despite just citing official CFRs.
I suspect Starmer and his hench women were as fully informed as Ministers.
I agree. Given that they all shit in the same pot it is unreasonable to believe otherwise.
Of course they were. The Leader of the Opposition is briefed on any significant risk.
“…if depopulation is the long term agenda what better way of achieving it than bankrupting major drug producers by passing on these bills.”
Which implies that drug producers provide major health benefits to society. As far as I am concerned we are now at the point where the jury is out on that point.
So all of us who were branded anti vaccers (i spell it that way) and conspiracy theorists were right all along. A common theme.
Covid 19 and the response to it is the most important event to happen in the world in the last decade,and politicians are almost entirely silent about it during a general election campaign.
Andrew Bridgen has been a lonely and brave voice in Parliament. His reward was expulsion from the Conservative Party. He deserves our support as an independent in North West Leicestershire.
It seems difficult but hopefully not impossible for independents like him to win seats, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
With reference to my reply to D J, if Bridgen can take his seat as an independent it will be a heartening sign that things are going to get better for us. And if he loses it to some Labour or Conservative cut out, then it’ll be a bad sign.
One to watch for sure.
If Andrew Bridgen loses his seat it will be confirmation of massive vote rigging. It does happen and only idiots believe otherwise.
Good two hour interview with AB. Resistance GB. Interesting when he talks about losing his properties to HS2 and the scam that is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pidSG5nMkW8
Thanks Ron. Yes a good interview, so good in fact that I watched it end to end in one sitting.
Confirmation if any were needed of the appalling level of corruption in which this country is mired.
Last decade?
Let’s see what the legacy of it is, but to me it’s looking like the most important event to happen in the world since WWII, whichever way things go.
It either marks the end of liberal democracy and the beginning of a global totalitarian era or it’s a moment of awakening that propels us to a more advanced state of freedom and self governance.
Impossible to see at this stage which way it’s going. But what you can be sure of is that things are not going to settle back into what they were before covid. That’s for sure.
Quite likely true, although it might depend on where one is – e.g. across the pond they would (perhaps) take into account Vietnam. That said, re Bridgen, the only other MP that achieved an independent in such circumstances was Martin Bell, in Knutsford, who won in 1997 – the rest of that year’s election is obviously well known.
Regulators aren’t there to protect the public. They are there to promote the interests of the industry they are regulating.
And you know what, I don’t want the government to protect me. Whenever it pretends to do so, it usually does the exact opposite.
Thanks but I can protect myself.
The free market generally does a perfectly good job of weeding out bullshit products and services and making the good ones thrive. And the beauty of a free market that is allowed to function normally is that it cannot be manipulated by a company.
We don’t need any regulators. We just need the free market to be left to function properly.
The sewage & water systems need regulation, or more competition. They are in a real state in some places and have seen sewage in fields myself.
For Pfizer any settlement will take years and will simply be accounted for as a cost of doing business. They made $100bn in a year from the clot shot so even a $1-2bn settlement (dragged out for a decade) probably won’t unduly worry them. Only serious jail time for senior execs will make them think twice next time
Absolutely true.
But a court decision against them would be very useful for arguing against the whole covd response and in general for the future.
Civil suits to follow against politicians and bureaucrats?
That won’t be allowed. The whole charade would collapse.
If we choose, and pay, there is no way to legally stop it. However “they” would find ways to make it impossibly expensive.
I would suggest there may be enough evidence for a criminal case against the Directors. After all they would have “signed off” the corporate stance on these issues knowing full well they were not being truthful.
“Regulators and public health bodies are no longer protectors; increasingly, they are the enemies of patient safety.”
Yes. And they seem to be proud of that fact. June Raine, head of the MHRA and supposed to protect the public from dangerous medical products, boasted that the so-called Regulator was now an ENABLER for Big Pharma.
“In Dr Raine’s words, this is how she deliberately set out to transform the MHRA’s role (my bold): ‘We tore up the rule book, and we allowed companies to immediately start juxtaposing not sequential phases of clinical trials, but overlapping, beginning the next one before the previous had been finished. And that large-scale manufacture being prepared, at risk. We did not know if any of these vaccines would be effective.
She should be charged with Malfeasance in Public Office.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-doctor-who-turned-her-health-watchdog-into-a-covid-vaccine-lapdog/
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-mhra-the-watchdog-covering-up-the-truth-about-vaccine-deaths-and-injuries/