NADD - An association for persons with developmental disabilities and mental health needs

Mental Health and Environmental Exposures

A primary focus of the NADD Environmental Health Project for this year is to raise the awareness of the mental health community about the role that exposure to environmental toxins may play in causing or triggering psychiatric symptoms or mental illness. Exposure to lead, mercury, aluminum, pesticides, solvents, and other chemicals may play a part in causing psychiatric symptoms. To read a fact sheet on “Mental Health and Environmental Exposures,” click here.

The first step in this process was the creation of a work group on Mental Health and Environment, organized under the auspices of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment. NADD recruited work group members and is chairing the work group. For a list of work group members, click here.

The factors that contribute to mental illness are very complex, and the ways and degrees that toxic exposures contribute to mental illness are not clearly understood. In general, the work group is focusing, initially, upon on being more precise about the science and being about to say what the evidence suggests and how strong the conclusions are in relationship to specific environmental toxins. As part of a thorough literature review, we will be reading all of the relevant research articles and analyzing and describing the research, including study design and weaknesses. The first area being reviewed is the relationship between pesticide exposure and psychiatric symptoms or mental illness. (To see the list of articles on this topic, click here.)

The work group will also be considering how to communicate what is already known and what we will be learning so as to impact how clinicians practice. It is not enough to be creating one more paper that will get published somewhere; clinicians need to think about their work in new ways.

Also, the work group will be building relationships with associations that represent clinicians so as to promote dialogue about this issue.

If you are interested in working on this topic, or if you would like additional information, contact Ed Seliger, Environmental Health Project Coordinator, at eseliger@thenadd.org.