Assessing and Intervening with Children and Adolescents Exposed to Neurotoxins

This chapter introduces two neurotoxins: carbon monoxide (CO) and lead (Pb). Given the frequency of CO poisoning, school neuropsychologists have been seeing children with poisoning without knowing it. Common initial symptoms of CO poisoning are often described as flu‐like: headache, fatigue, dizziness, drowsiness, nausea, and confusion. Survivors of acute CO poisoning exhibit a near doubling of the mortality rate over time compared with a standard population. Brain injury happens in phases with CO poisoning, with oxygen deprivation being the first element. If CO is sometimes called the forgotten poison, Pb is the most frequently discussed within the school psychology/psychology literature. Both CO and lead produce long‐term effects; however, only CO is associated with delayed neurological symptoms in people who initially seemed to have sustained little injury. The neurological deterioration is also evident in accelerated brain aging, including early onset of dementia disorders, neurodegenerative conditions, and senescence.