A SELECTIVE HISTORY OF ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER AND A.D.H.D.

                                                                       

    Hippocrates of Kos (460-375 BC) attributed a condition comparable to ADHD to an "overbalance of fire and water".


                                                                             

    1775 Dr Melchior Adam Weikard of Bruckenau discussed 'inattentive people who 'know a little bit of all but nothing of the whole'.


                                                                         

    1798 Sir Alexander Crichton  (Westminster Hospital) described a mental state much like an inattentive subtype of ADHD.

                                                                       

                                                                     

    1845 Dr. Heinrich Hoffman of Frankfurt coined the term Hyperkinetic Syndrome for 'naughty restless children growing still more rude and wild'.



                                                                           

                                                                     

    1902  Sir George Still of King's College Hospital, London documented cases of impulsive behaviour, and called the condition  Defect of Moral Control.


                                                                              

    1922 ADHD-like symptoms were diagnosed as Minimal Brain Damage by the eugenicist Dr. Alfred Tredgold of Royal Surrey County Hospital. (The terms Minimal Brain Dysfunction and Hyperkinetic Disorder of Childhood were later used for this condition)


                                                                         

    1931  Drs. E.A. Bond and K.E. Appel of the Pennsylvania Hospital discussed the treatment of ADHD-like symptoms diagnosed since the 1920s as Post-Encephalitic Behaviour Disorder


                                                                        

    1937 Children with ADHD-like symptoms were treated with stimulant Benzedrine by Dr. Charles Bradley of Babies Hospital, New York.



                                                                         

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    1961  Ritalin gained FDA approval for treating  hyperactive children.  During 1960s, stimulants were increasingly used to treat such hyperactivity.


                                                                             

                                                            Image from understood.org

    1970s. More symptoms recognized, including impulsiveness (verbal, cognitive, or motor), lack of focus, and daydreaming.

                                                                       

    1980 Name Attention Deficit Disorder invented by American Psychiatric Association.

    1987  Name in USA revised to Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.

                                                                        

 


1996 Adderall was approved to treat ADHD



                                                                                 

    1998 American Medical Association stated that ADHD was one of the most researched "disorders"

                                   

                                                                           

The Massachussetts Institute of Technology (Dr. Joseph Biederman) and Columbia University (Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman) are regarded by the psychiatry profession as leading centres for research into the diagnosis and treatment of ADD as a supposed medical condition,

Many successful people of the past and present have been thought to be Attention Deficit and neurodiverse, including Albert Einstein, John F.Kennedy, Walt Disney, and many entertainers and athletes,

COLLAGE

UK STATISTICS   

USA STATISTICS

SCRIPT

 Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD for short, is not really a disorder, but rather a point on the human scale . It is a persistent pattern of inattention and impulsivity that affects daily life and individual development. Children and adults with ADD often have difficulties with their brain's ability to begin an activity, organise itself, and manage tasks, and with working memory. Those of us who are also hyperactive are said to be experiencing ADHD or Attention Dficit Hyperactive Disorder,  The definitions are slightly different in the United States. Other forms of neurodiversity include autism, dyspraxia, dyslexia, dyscalculia, and Tourette's syndrome, and these sometimes overlap with ADD


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