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Attention Deficit Disorders

History, Definition, and Diagnosis

  • Chapter
Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology

Abstract

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is the most recent label for children who display developmentally inappropriate degrees of poor sustained attention, impulsivity, overactivity, and problems with adherence to rules and instructions.1 Children with ADD comprise a heterogeneous population with there being considerable variation across children in the extent to which they demonstrate all these symptoms. Moreover, a large percentage of ADD children display a higher prevalence of other medical, psychiatric, and developmental disorders, further contributing to the diversity of characteristics of this group. The disorder represents one of the most common reasons children are referred to child guidance centers in this country, and is one of the most prevalent of the childhood psychiatric disorders. This chapter will review briefly the history of the disorder, its nature, and its present definitions, as well as recently proposed research and clinical diagnostic criteria for identification of children with the disorder.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester, Massachusetts, 01605, USA

    Russell A. Barkley

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  1. Russell A. Barkley
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

    Michael Lewis

  2. Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Suzanne M. Miller

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Barkley, R.A. (1990). Attention Deficit Disorders. In: Lewis, M., Miller, S.M. (eds) Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7142-1_6

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