ATTENTION-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a mental ailment usually diagnosed in childhood manifesting itself as a group of behaviours present in children and adults. These behavorial symptoms include hyperactivity, forgetfulness, mood shifts, poor impulse control and reduced attention span or distractibility. Under neurological pathology, ADHD is defined as a chronic syndrome considered incurable.
Pediatric and adult patients may display ADHD symptoms believed to affect between three to five percent of the human population. Despite extensive research much controversy and debate continues concerning the diagnosis of ADHD such as the contention of whether the diagnosis indicates a disability in the traditional sense or is merely a description of a person's individual or neurological property. People who consider ADHD as a disability or disorder often argue over how it should be treated, if at all. Formerly labelled as attention deficit disorder (ADD) it was renamed ADHD in 1994 by the American Psychiatric Association (APA).
Controversy
Doctors over the years have disputed the appropriate designation of ADHD in part due to the difficulty of identifying which behaviours are positive of ADHD over those that are characteristics of another ailment. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) defines ADHD as a behavioral disorder characterized by developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention and/or hyperactive-impulsive behavior.
Those with ADHD suffer significant disability in major social areas like interpersonal relations, educational or job goals and cognitive or adaptive functioning. Majority of medical research in the US and other countries regard ADHD as a non-curable neurological disorder for which paradoxically there is a number of available treatments considered effective. These treatments, like medication and psychotherapy can be used independently or combined with other techniques.
Vague criteria
While patients manage to control their symptoms over time, some of them who meet the diagnostic criteria set by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) don't consider themselves ill at all.Thus they may remain undiagnosed or untreated despite an earlier positive diagnosis. ADHD is usually detected on children at seven years of age and is more common among boys than girls.
In diagnosing ADHD, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reiterate that this should be done by trained health care providers since many of the symptoms may form part of other conditions like hyperthyroidism. Not a few have wondered about the dramatic increase in the number of diagnosis for ADHD in the US and UK.
While others cite the improvements in diagnosis and greater awareness of the disorder, others like Dan P. Hallahan and James M. Kauffman complained that the criteria for diagnosis is too general and thus vague.
In their book Exceptional Learners: Introduction to Special Eduction, the two pointed out that this would lead anybody with persistent unwanted behaviors to be classified with ADHD even if the symptoms are not backed by sufficient empirical data.
Inconclusive
Another source of debate lies in the observation that most people positively identified with ADHD show no difficulties concentrating on something that interests them, whether it be educational or entertainment. Still these were rejected by the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Surgeon General.
While some psychiatrists stress parental and educational factors as strongly influencing the ability of children tested positive or negative of ADHD to perform with motivated integrated behavior, they argue that millions of children diagnosed with ADHD don't have anything wrong with their brains. The biological evidence for ADHD was presented by Dr. Xavier Castellanos, then head of ADHD research at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) who presented a brain scan of those with ADHD and those without the disease. The scan was performed with test subjects performing several tasks. While the scan showed varying level of brain activity the test was considered inconclusive.
