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History of ADHD: More Than Two Centuries Tracking Attention Deficits
1798–Dr Alexander Crichton, royal physician to the tsar of Russia, described children who were “incapable of attending with constancy to any one object of attention.” He called the disorder “Mental Restlessness.”
1902–Sir George Still, MD, lectured the British medical society about impulsive children. He discussed possible reasons for this impulsive behavior other than physical disease.
1937–Dr Charles Bradley in Rhode Island was the first to treat hyperactive children with amphetamine.
1980–The Diagnostic Manual for Psychiatric Disorders included the name and a description of “Attention Deficit Disorder.”
1998–Experts from across the country created a national consensus: Diagnosis and Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. "ADHD is a commonly diagnosed behavioral disorder of childhood that represents a costly major public health problem."
1999–The National Institutes of Health carried out The Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD. Outcomes showed the best treatment plan includes both medication and behavior modification.
2004–The US Senate established National Attention Deficit Disorder Awareness Day, September 14, 2004, to educate the public and raise awareness about this major public health concern.
Today, researchers are gathering more evidence about ADHD from images of the brain. Dr Max Muenke, Chief of the Medical Genetics Branch of the National Institutes of Health, and others are working to identify more of the genes that may play a part in ADHD.
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