AUTHOR=Mills Sheelah 

TITLE=The scientific integrity of ADHD: A critical examination of the underpinning theoretical constructs

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1062484

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1062484

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=Prior to the establishment and promotion of ADHD as a psychiatric disorder, the labels 'minimal brain dysfunction' (MBD), 'hyperactivity' (HA), and 'learning disability' (LD) were diagnostic terms for children with hard-to-manage behaviours. At the time, these labels and the treatment interventions, especially the heavy reliance on stimulant medications, were subject to criticism. Nearly half a century later, these criticisms apply equally to ADHD, suggesting a disturbing lack of progress in this area of child psychiatry. Therefore, the aim of this article is to examine the scientific integrity of ADHD, to establish why this is the case. I use a philosophy of science framework to track the initial thinking, the plausibility, and the acceptance of ADHD as a biomedical condition. I establish that ADHD, along with the evolving biomedical model for psychiatry, was accepted in the third edition of the American Psychiatric Association‘s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-III) as the result of bias and political wrangling. This means the scientific integrity of ADHD may have been compromised because of an assumption, rather than a demonstration, of plausibility. For this reason, I undertake a critical examination of the underpinning ideologies, identified as biological psychiatry and cognitive psychology. I find neither view is congruent with current scientific knowledge, thus demonstrating a general lack of plausibility. These findings extend to more recent theory. Altogether, there is little good reason to accept the biomedical view of ADHD as empirically confirmed, nor good reason to expect such confirmation will be forthcoming.