Myth or Fact?
AD/HD
A Warning for the Over-Diagnosed
Dangers of Medicating; Alternatives for an Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder Individual
created by Alexis L. Jung
Discovery of the "Mythical" Diagnosis
Sir George Frederick Still was England’s first professor in child medicine. In March of 1904 he introduced a series of lectures to the Royal College of Physicians in London, which he called “Goulstonian lectures” (Still). In these lectures, Still described 43 children whom he claimed were expressing “abnormal psychological conditions”:
[These children] had serious problems with sustained attention and self-regulation, who were often aggressive, defiant, and resistant to discipline, excessively emotional or passionate, who showed little inhibitory volition, had serious problems with sustained attention and could not learn from the consequences of their actions; though their intellect was normal...I would point out that a notable feature in many of these cases of moral defect without general impairment of intellect is a quite abnormal incapacity for sustained attention.
These lectures were the first steps towards the research of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, which at that time was unnamed though Still described it as a “defect of moral consciousness which cannot be accounted for by any fault of environment”. Still’s lectures later helped Franklin Ebaugh, whose research in 1924 produced evidence that ADD could arise from physical head trauma, or “brain damage”. Ebaugh believed that ADD, a condition where the individual's chronic hyperactivity, explosive behavior, and attention span was uncontrollable, could be explained through theories of biological cause. Because of his research, people began to call the previously unnamed disorder “Minimal Brain Dysfunction”. It was not until the early 1980s that the condition became known as “Attention Deficit Disorder, with or without Hyperactivity" . Since its discovery, the amount of children diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Disorder with or without the Hyperactivity element has steadily increased over the years, as has the number of children who take some form of medication in order to battle the disorder.
Sir George Frederick Still
(1868-1941)
"Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)." Centers for Disease Control Ad Prevention. USA.gov, 13 May 2013. Web. 14 July 2013. <http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/data.html>.
"Sir George F Still." The History of A.D.H.D: The History of the Innattentive Gets Attention. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 July 2013. <http://adhdhistory.com/sir-george-f-still/>.
Spencer, Thomas J., MD, Joseph Biederman, MD, and Eric Mick, ScD. "Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Diagnosis, Lifespan,." Thesis. Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass., 2007. Journal of Pediatric Psychology 32.6 (2007): 631-32. Print.