The "invention" of ADHD and the children's medicalization

Abstract

Based on the concept of social construction of the illness, the article looks for the historical roots of ADHD’s conceptualization. In the case at hand, there is not a social construction, but an invention. An illness like ADHD is made up from a generic symptomatology and without having been able to provide clear evidence of its link to any brain injury or biochemical alteration. The discovery that some of these symptoms subside (temporarily) with the use of treatment based on amphetamines and analogous substances has reinforced the thesis that its origin lies on some biochemical deficiency. Increasing number of ADHD diagnosis and subsequent pharmacological treatment opened up an important market to pharmaceutical multinationals that commercialize such kind of drugs. In the last part of the article some possible psychopedagogical measures to be taken at school with students with attention deficit disorder are pointed out.