ADHD is a disorder that has “a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that is more frequently displayed and more severe than is typically observed in individuals at a comparable level of development”(1). Symptoms are usually seen before the age of 7, and the patient has to show disruption of functioning in 2 environments (eg. Home and school), and have disruption in educational, social or occupational settings. As children are the ones that are usually diagnosed, they can appear fidgety, distracted, hyper and confused. One odd thing about the appearance of the disorder is that at one point or another, children usually look and feel this way. This has led to a hypothesis of over-diagnosing this disorder.

Background reading

Recent

• Rachel Reiland, Get Me Out of Here, 2004
• Pamela Spiro Wagner and Carolyn S. Spiro, Divided Minds, 2005
• Daniel Tammet, Born on a Blue Day, 2006
• John Elder Robison, Look Me in the Eye, 2007
• Howard Dully and Charles Fleming, My Lobotomy, 2007
• Elyn R. Saks, The Center Cannot Hold, 2007
• Richard Powers, The Echo Maker, 2006 (fiction)

Earlier