Talk:Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder in Children: The Medicalization of Childhood

Hi! This is a great wiki-page, the information presented was detailed and thorough! My favourite part was when you separated into descriptions from each perspective. I thought that it was fresh and unexpected, but still fit with the wiki-page presentation. Reading about your findings from each the teacher, the professional, the parent, and the child would be really helpful to someone looking for specific information or perhaps trying to understand a different point of view. Reading the comment by you above (or below) - I'm glad that you chose to focus solely on children. Moving further into adults may have made this page confusing and difficult to figure out what the main "point" of it was. Your overall layout and attention to detail in this wiki-page makes it very successful!

Thanks for putting this content together; great information!

One technical comment: As of the fifth edition on, the Roman numeral is no longer used in referencing the DSM; the abbreviated reference is DSM-5.

One point that may be interesting to specifically note in the section on authoritarianism, medicalization and current school environments is that there's about a 4:1 ratio in boys to girls diagnosed. ADHD is considered to be strongly influenced by genetics, and maybe this accounts for part of the gender variance, but do socialization and environmental factors (such as what you mentioned on medicalization of childhood; school system structure which may go against children's natural grain to be active and explore, and that boys' development tends to run naturally a little more slowly than girls' development) play any role in this as well?

In case this is any use: I've seen a statistic (although I think it's fairly old, early 2000s) that about 68% of children with ADHD continue to have trouble with inattention into adulthood.

Thank you for your feedback, Olivia! I will update the DSM-5 references. I'm thinking of how I might be able to use the interesting information you've provided. If I do, I will definitely incorporate the information. = )

Update: I have decided to narrow down my main topic a little further to ADHD in Children. I was originally planning to digress into Adult ADHD as well, but I felt that I could provide a more in-depth discussion by focusing on ADHD in Children and doing a write-up on the different perspectives from professionals, teachers, parents, and individuals diagnosed with ADHD instead. The stat (about 68% of children with ADHD continue to have trouble with inattention into adulthood) is not as relevant as before, but I have found a great source of stats from the Child Trends Data Bank that would supplement my discussion on the ADHD debate. Thanks again for the tip. It helped me realize that stats would actually be a great addition to the Wiki page!