From Mad in Denmark: In a new article in Frontiers in Psychiatry, researchers explain the four strategies that have mistakenly made ADHD a medical disease. According to the researchers, the term ADHD is simply a description of children’s behaviour, but the way it is usually discussed “reifies” it – or assumes that the description is an objective fact with explanatory power.
“The descriptive classification Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is often confused with a disease entity that explains the causes of inattentive and hyperactive behaviour, rather than simply describing the existence of such behaviour,” they write.
Why is this distinction so crucial? The researchers explain this.