Abstract
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is not a singular concept. For the purposes of this study, understandings of ADHD are assumed also to spread along a conceptual dimension that includes some combination of biomedical and psychosocial knowledge. Biomedically, ADHD may be considered a somatic affliction causing inattention and hyperactivity, amenable to pharmaceutical treatment. Psychosocially, ADHD ranks among adverse behaviour patterns that are amenable to psychosocial and pedagogical intervention. Considering both biomedical and psychosocial factors are associated with the ADHD construct, it seems self-evident that young people should be offered information that gives equal consideration to both ways of addressing ADHD, but the question is just how balanced the information available to young people is. This study investigated nine information books on ADHD available in the Netherlands in Dutch, aimed at children and young people up to age 17. Thirteen perspective-dependent text elements were identified in qualitative content analysis. Eight attributes associate with a biomedical view: ADHD as cause, biological factors, clinical diagnosis, brain abnormality, medication, neurofeedback, heritability and persistence. Five text elements associate with a psychosocial view: ADHD as perceived behaviour, environmental factors, descriptive diagnosis, behavioural intervention and normalisation. The most frequent text passages encountered describe ADHD as a brain abnormality, along with medical and behavioural treatment. Providing the main focus for information in eight out of nine books, biomedical information about ADHD predominates in the available youth information books, while psychosocial information about ADHD is far less well covered.
Highlights
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is defined by the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual as developmentally inappropriate inattention and impulsivity with or without hyperactivity [1]
Our textual analysis of nine information books on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) aimed at youth and written in Dutch reveals that biomedical information about ADHD predominates, relative to psychosocial information
A majority of the books reflect an orientation towards ADHD as presenting a persistent disorder caused by an brain abnormality that is amenable to medical treatment
Summary
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is defined by the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual as developmentally inappropriate inattention and impulsivity with or without hyperactivity [1]. In the US 2.2 million school-age children, aged 6-11 (amounting to 8.9 percent of this age group) have a current diagnosis of ADHD. Twothirds of these children are prescribed medication [2]. — are on methylphenidate, the most common drug prescribed after ADHD diagnosis [3]. We divide conceptions of ADHD roughly into more biomedical [4] and more psychosocial views [5]. While we realise other positions are common and wholly divergent views have been put forward in the scholarly literature (e.g., 6), biomedical and psychosocial views are typically present in some combination in scholarship, and are probably co-present in popular perception. The two main conceptions of ADHD are not mutually exclusive and can logically co-exist, for example in the widespread view that ADHD involves
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