About this Research Topic
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most frequently diagnosed and medicated childhood psychiatric disorders worldwide. In the past three decades, diagnosis and medication use rates have risen significantly in many countries. However, concerns about the reliability and validity of the diagnosis, and the safety and efficacy of the drugs used to treat ADHD have also increased rather than abated. In some Western countries, the intention now is to decrease medication use, and in a broader perspective, demedicalize (child) inattentive and hyperactive behaviors.
One possible causal factor for the rise in ADHD diagnoses and medication use could be the dominance of biomedical perspectives in clinical research and practice, as well as in society more generally. Despite numerous hyped claims of imminent breakthroughs, the extensive and sustained search for ADHD biomarkers has been unsuccessful. Identifying environmental risk factors has received less attention in research as well as in the popular media. By representing ADHD as a neurobiological disorder, hyperactive and inattentive behaviors are attributed to an intrinsic condition of the child that needs medical treatment. The widespread reduction of ADHD to neurobiology and medicine may overinflate diagnoses and invite unnecessary and potentially harmful pharmacological interventions, while obscuring accounts that highlight the lack of scientific evidence for, and scholarly consensus on, ADHD.
This Research Topic focuses on ADHD as a wider phenomenon. The aim is to draw attention to societal factors and characteristics of the scientific community that play a part in the rise and popularity of ADHD and its treatment. Contributions are invited not only from psychiatry and psychology, but also from educational science, sociology, history, philosophy, and other disciplines.
Potential topics include:
• The role of schools and teachers
• The role of societal factors like poverty
• The role of the media/internet
• The role of science (e.g. publication pressure, publication bias)
• Geographical differences in trends of diagnosis and medication use
• Cultural differences
• Power issues in ADHD
• Relative age
• Reification
One possible causal factor for the rise in ADHD diagnoses and medication use could be the dominance of biomedical perspectives in clinical research and practice, as well as in society more generally. Despite numerous hyped claims of imminent breakthroughs, the extensive and sustained search for ADHD biomarkers has been unsuccessful. Identifying environmental risk factors has received less attention in research as well as in the popular media. By representing ADHD as a neurobiological disorder, hyperactive and inattentive behaviors are attributed to an intrinsic condition of the child that needs medical treatment. The widespread reduction of ADHD to neurobiology and medicine may overinflate diagnoses and invite unnecessary and potentially harmful pharmacological interventions, while obscuring accounts that highlight the lack of scientific evidence for, and scholarly consensus on, ADHD.
This Research Topic focuses on ADHD as a wider phenomenon. The aim is to draw attention to societal factors and characteristics of the scientific community that play a part in the rise and popularity of ADHD and its treatment. Contributions are invited not only from psychiatry and psychology, but also from educational science, sociology, history, philosophy, and other disciplines.
Potential topics include:
• The role of schools and teachers
• The role of societal factors like poverty
• The role of the media/internet
• The role of science (e.g. publication pressure, publication bias)
• Geographical differences in trends of diagnosis and medication use
• Cultural differences
• Power issues in ADHD
• Relative age
• Reification
Keywords: ADHD, Overdiagnosis, Medicalization, Society, Scientism
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