| Many people think ADHD is a recent "fad," a new | | | | in 1968. |
| diagnosis. Nothing could be farther from the truth. | | | | All of these names for ADHD give an idea of where |
| In 1845, Dr. Heinrich Hoffman, a physician who wrote | | | | the research was going at particular times. In the |
| books on medicine and psychiatry, wrote an illustrated | | | | 1960's and '70's much of the focus on what is now |
| book of children's poetry about children and their | | | | ADHD was on hyperactivity, with an awareness of |
| characteristics. "The Story of Fidgety Philip" was a | | | | the "daydreaming" and distractibility coming only in the |
| portraite of an ADHD boy. | | | | 1980's. |
| ADHD was not "discovered" by Hoffman, however, or | | | | In 1980 the National Institutes of Mental Health |
| for many years later. In 1902 Sir George F. Still | | | | recognized Attention Deficit Disorder with or without |
| described a group of impulsive children with significant | | | | Hyperactivity as a disorder. ADHD was on its way to |
| behavioral problems which he ascribed to a genetic | | | | becoming recognized as a "real" illness. |
| disorder and not poor parenting. He was describing | | | | In 1998 the American Medical Association (AMA) |
| ADHD over 100 years ago. He called it "Morbid Defect | | | | stated that ADHD is "one of the best-researched |
| of Moral Control." | | | | disorders in medicine." |
| In 1922 the name of what we now call ADHD was | | | | Unfortunately, even with all of this research, no one |
| changed to "Post-Encephalitic Behavior Disorders" in | | | | knows what causes ADHD or how to cure it. But |
| 1922 and "Minimal Brain Dysfunction" in 1960. The term | | | | perhaps knowing a little of the history of ADHD will |
| "Attention Deficit Disorder +/- Hyperactivity" (now | | | | help you talk to your ADHD child and understand him a |
| ADHD) came into being, after "Hyperkinetic Reaction" | | | | little better. |