Author: John Ferry
Domination of the world’s markets allows American culture to be successfully exported. Along with Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Hollywood, pseudo-medical constructs such as ADHD are becoming a part of everyday culture in other Western countries and slowly creeping into the collective consciousness of many non-industrialized countries too. An enthusiastic drug industry and drug-industry-funded pro-medication parent groups, using the tools given to them by prominent bio-psychiatrists helped establish ADHD as the main diagnostic label to use. This is evident by clinics that have been set up in this country (United States), both private and National Health Service (NHS), being called ADHD clinics as opposed to ‘Hyperkinetic disorder’ clinics. Titles used in publications, media reports, and academic conferences now refer to ADHD, with it the less money-spinning term ‘Hyperkinetic Syndrome’ seems disappearing into the pages of history. So, what is the evidence doe the existence of this disorder? Are there medical tests that will diagnosis it? No. is there any specific cognitive, metabolic or neurological markers for ADHD? No. ADHD is a cultural construct diagnosed on the basis of clinical opinion and faithful belief of the practitioner and often presented as if it were a biological fact. Those who have argued that ADHD does not exist as a real disorder start by pointing to the obvious uncertainty about its definition. Indeed, despite years and billions of dollars spent on research, the validity types of behavioral disturbances in childhood, particularly those involving aggressive and defiant behaviors, has not been established. Because of the uncertainty about definition, it different prevalence rates for ADHD or hyperkinetic disorders, ranging from about 0.5 per cent of school aged children to 26 per cent of school-aged children. Epidemiological studies have found a preponderance of boys over girls in ADHD symptomatology in the region of four (or more) to one. This is very similar to gender distribution found in conduct disorder and other so-called externalizing behavioral disorders in children. The meaning of this gender distribution never seems to be questioned. What sort of biological variable are we attempting to categorize here if this is a biological abnormality? Is it that boys generally have bad genes compared to girls? It is something to do with the normal biological differences between male and female genes? Is there an interaction between boy’s behavior and changes in social expectations regarding children’s behavior generally? Do social changes in family structure, lifestyles, teaching methods, classroom sizes, rates if violence, rates of substance misuse and so on have an effect on perceptions and beliefs about boy’s and girl’s behavior, or even on their behavior directly? Has life got harder for boys in someway? Has life got harder for parents tying to control normal boy behavior? Are we still compelled to pay more attention to the externalized behavior of boys than the internalized societies are usually more tolerant of hyperactivity in girls than in boys? Do changes in teaching methods and a predominance of female teachers have an effect on how we understand and deal with boys’ behavior? These and other social/cultural questions relating to ADHD are never discussed in the medical literature in general and child psychiatric literature in particular, where there is a chocking lack of engagement with perspectives from other disciplines.
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