Sir, – Ronan McGreevy writes that there has been a 50 per cent rise in long-term conditions affecting 13 year olds from 2011/12 to 2021/22 of which autism and ADHD accounts for more than half (“Substantial increase in number of 13 year olds diagnosed with disability over last decade – report”, October 22nd).
This is reported in a new ESRI study. The report concludes that this may be due to a greater awareness of conditions that may not have been classified as such in the past.
A time span of 2011-2022 makes it difficult to justify this argument. Although anecdotal, teachers working with special needs children say that the severity of symptoms is also increasing.
It is easy to dismiss multiple preservatives in food and multiple vaccines as the stuff of conspiracy theory, but more investigation needs to be encouraged to discern the reasons for these long-term conditions. – Yours, etc,
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PAUL CONNOLLY,
Cavan.