Interesting article from Psychology Today questioning whether or not ADHD is a scientifically verifiable diagnosis or simply a social constuct.
“The main point of my article was that there is no scientific evidence that ADHD is a real biological disorder. Medical scientists have not isolated a biological cause for ADHD, nor is there a laboratory test for it. ADHD is a social construction by a committee of psychiatrists who author the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Many of the authors of the DSM-4 (56% to be exact) have financial ties to pharmaceutical companies who stand to profit greatly from medicating children.” As I point out in another Psychology Today blog, ADHD: The Emperor’s New Diagnosis,”…the moniker ADHD merely describes a cluster of externally observed symptoms: the child often fidgets, makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, often loses his pencils, has difficulty waiting his turn, blurts out answers in class, and so forth. This is like defining diabetes as excessive urination, frequent thirst, lack of energy, and having sweet-smelling urine. Of course doctors do not define diabetes by these observable symptoms because diabetes has a well understood biological cause. Diabetes is a metabolic disorder of the pancreas being unable to produce sufficient insulin. But ADHD…[is] defined only by externally observable symptoms.”
Related articles
- Why French Kids Don’t Have ADHD – Part 2 (psychologytoday.com)
- Everybody Has ADHD. No, They Don’t. (psychologytoday.com)
- French Kids Do Have ADHD: An Interview (psychologytoday.com)
- Is ADHD an American Fad? (everydayhealth.com)
- Destroying Children with the Cloak of ADHD (2012thebigpicture.wordpress.com)
scott-williams.ca 
I know the cure. a big back yard and a belt.
Reblogged this on adhdismyadvantage and commented:
An interesting debate and some good media points you make but not the full picture. ADHD is actually an Auto-Immune disorder often connected with similar immunities in the mother specifically during pregnancy, this can be changes to things such as the thyroid. Although typically ADHD is advertised as the naughty child this is not really the case as signs of ADHD can be displayed so variously across different sufferers.
It does seem that in more recent years ADHD has just become a tagline used by many medical practioners as an excuse to avoid telling parents the downfalls in their parenting or more importantly failing to offer them the right support to help them with their children. Unfortunately it is this use and mis-diagnosis of ADHD that has left true sufferers at a loss.
Thanks for your thoughts,you obviously have some knowledge in this area. I think, and this is no big revelation, that Psychology Today is seeking to present both sides of an argument that has been going on for some time and encompasses several diagnoses. I have heard similar arguments made against the diagnosis of Oppositional Defiance Disorder, and others.