COMMENTARY A New and Circumspect Strategy to Reify ADD/ADHD?

Since the late 1970s, hundreds of studies have been conducted suggesting a variety of brain and nervous system anomalies as proof that ADD/ADHD are diseases. None of these findings can be demonstrated at the clinical level, but the sheer volume of publications temporarily serves as persuasive evidence for many professionals and members of the public. However, the 1998 National Institutes of Health ADHD Consensus Panel cast serious doubts on the credibility of the disease perspective. As a result, a new strategy may be emerging to reify ADD/ADHD as biologically based disorders by redesignating them as "developmental disorders" and perhaps ultimately as pervasive developmental disorders. Still, the new designation remains as hopelessly vague as the older one.