ADHD being recognized amongst adults may be a recent phenomenon, but it is interesting to put ADHD history itself into context. ADHD symptoms were recorded in the mid 1800s in children with nervous system injuries and diseases, howeverÂ ADHD as such is normally recognized as being first described by George Still in 1902. He called it “morbid defect of moral control”. Since then it has also been called: minimal brain damage (1930), minimal brain dysfunction (1960), hyper kinetic reaction of childhood (1968), and attention deficit disorder (ADD) with or without hyperactivity (1980). Since 1987, it has been known as ADHD or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. A second definition was brought out in 1992 by the World Health Organization, “hyper kinetic disorder”, a narrower definition than ADHD that comprises only the more serious cases.
The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (known as DSM-IV-TR) classifies ADHD in three ways. ADHD combined type, ADHD predominantly inattentive and ADHD predominantly hyperactive-impulsive type. While the World Health Organization International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision 1992 (known as ICD-10) has a similar list of symptoms for ‘hyper kinetic disorder’.
Perhaps with this long and evolving history of ADHD and it’s various classifications for children, it should come as no surprise that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is now being recognized amongst adults. As a population becomes accustomed to the recognition of the problems and associations of a particular condition, it can indeed become easier to see these problems among another segment of the population where they have previously been ignored. It is another step in the ongoing classification and treatment of problematic behaviors of members of society.