Timeline of ADHD

Timeline of ADHD

Year	History
1613	William Shakespeare’s play King Hennery VIII
1798	‘Mental Restlessness’ (Critchton)
1809	‘Observations on Madness and Melancholy.’ (Haslam)
1845	‘Hyperkinetic Syndrome’ and ‘Fidgety Phil’ (Hoffman)
1902	‘Deficits in Moral Character’ (Still)
1908	‘Minimal Brain Damage’ (Tredgold).
1913	‘Partial Moral Dementia’ (Stein)
1917	Post-encephalitis behavioural disorders
1931	‘Hyperkinetic child’ (Winnicott)
1934	‘Hyperkinetic Disease’ (Kramer – Pollnow)
1937	Charles Bradley study of Benzedrine.
1940	‘Minimal Brain Damage’.
1957	‘Hyperkinetic’ Impulse Disorder / Behaviour Syndrome
1960	‘Minimal Brain Dysfunction’
1968	‘Hyperkinetic Reaction of Childhood’ in the DSM-II
1972	V. Douglas’s research on inattention
1977	‘Hyperkinetic Syndrome of Childhood’ in the ICD -9
1980	‘Attention Deficit Disorder’ (ADD) in the DSM-III
1987	ADHD in the DSM-III-Rremoved sub-typing

It is also important to stress that the condition was not absent from the medical arena, indeed, the earliest paper on what would today be classified as ADHD, entitle Mental Restlessness was published by Dr Crichton in 1798 (Palmer & Finger, 2001), and clearlydescribes individuals with the inattentive subtype (their difficulties with concentration, persistence, and distractibility) as having 'the fidgets'. His contention that the condition was attributable to nervous system damage was supported by Maudsley (1867), and what is perhaps the most remarkable about the earliest descriptions, is that a biological basis was assumed.  Although, such sentiments were far from universally accepted, William James (1890) the founder of his field and an attention enthusiast, describes attributes and processes associated with an 'explosive will' in his infamous text the Principles of Psychology.

Key Points

• ADHD has a long history, the earliest medical text describing ADHD symptoms is over 200 years old (Crichton, 1798). 
• Clinical and scientific publications number in the thousands.
• Early consideration of moral and nervous system defects have been refined.
• Diagnostic criteria and the central features of the condition have become apparent across time based on research.  
• The three core features of ADHD hyperactivity (1917), inattention (1972), and more recently impulsivity (1987) are based on cumulative research and clinical findings.

During the first few decades of the twentieth century there was a preoccupation with descriptions of supposed aetiology. Dr George Still (1902) is often (incorrectly) cited as the first to apply a medical label to the disorder, which he referred to as a ‘Defect of Moral Control’ resulting from a neurobiological ‘affliction’.  In a series of lectures at the Royal College of Physicians in London, Still described 43 children who experienced chronic difficulties, with attention and self-regulation, many of them displayed challenging and oppositional behaviours, and others were said to be emotionally volatile. However, these difficulties were not associated with environmental factors, nor were these children in any way intellectually impaired. Similarly, Stein (1913) described the condition as a ‘moral dementia’ caused by the mind being ‘saturated’ with insanity while still in the womb. By modern standards the emphasis on moral failings appears ludicrous, however, at the time there was a reliance on religious and supernatural explanations for disabilities. Thus, the fact that in such times it was viewed as a medical, not spiritual, problem is significant.