Box 3

ADHD in school-aged children

Attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) is a mental disorder and, at the same time, a societal problem of significant proportions. In the US, for example, between two and four million school-aged children are affected by the disorder, showing symptoms such as hyperactivity, lack of concentration, and impulsivity. However, a thorough understanding of ADHD has not yet been arrived at. This drove Lauren Dean, a student at Miami University, to conduct an interdisciplinary study to unravel what is preventing us from understanding the causes of ADHD (Newell, 2006). To start, Dean mapped out the different assumptions and views on ADHD from the different disciplines that provide insights into the problem. She found that scientists from the fields of biology, psychology, and medicine tend to categorize ADHD as a biological disorder that needs biological intervention in the form of medication, although they realize that it cannot be diagnosed by physical tests alone, like other disorders of biological origin. Academics with a background in sociology, social history, or culture studies, in contrast, think the causes of ADHD are social and cultural, and often reject a physiological explanation of ADHD.