Abstract
This article offers a socio-historical account of the development of the Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnosis and methylphenidate treatment in America, attending particularly to the institutional and professional contexts that have supported this development. These historical developments frame a socio-cultural analysis that views contemporary schools and schooling practices as mediating factors in ADHD diagnoses and methylphenidate treatment. Consideration of the school as a mediating socio-cultural context illuminates important questions about the validity of the ADHD diagnosis, and about inter- and intra-national variations in the perception and tolerance of young children's behavior, educational and behavioral goals for children, and styles of treating problem behaviors in children. It is argued that both local and cross-national research on schools and schooling are important means of increasing understanding of the complex socio-cultural factors inherent in the global growth of ADHD diagnoses and methylphenidate treatment.
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aIlina Singh is Wellcome Trust University Lecturer in Bioethics and Society at the BIOS Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science. She has a long-standing interest in the psycho-social and ethical implications of new biomedical technologies for children and the family. For the past decade, much of her research has focused on children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and stimulant drug treatments. Her research approach in this area involves an attempt to provide an empirical evidence base for ethical and social concerns about the growing rates of diagnosis and psychotropic drug use in pediatric psychiatry. Other research interests include culture and history of psychotropic drugs; neuro-ethics; enhancement; consent and capacity in child psychiatry; pharmacogenomics; qualitative methodologies.
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Singh, I. A Framework for Understanding Trends in ADHD Diagnoses and Stimulant Drug Treatment: Schools and Schooling as a Case Study. BioSocieties 1, 439–452 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1017/S1745855206004054
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1745855206004054