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What IS ADHD?
ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. A person with ADHD, as compared to most persons his or her age, has certain symptoms, and these symptoms are present in more than one setting. Examples of the kind of symptoms I’m talking about are things like making careless mistakes, keeping attention on school work, not finishing work, having trouble organizing projects, procrastinating, putting things off, losing things, and getting distracted. We call these kinds of symptoms inattentive symptoms. Then there is a whole other set of symptoms that we call hyperactive-impulsive symptoms. These involve having trouble with being on the go too much, fidgeting too much, getting up out of his or her chair too much, running around when it’s not appropriate, making noise or talking all the time, interrupting, having trouble waiting turns, or blurting out answers. If enough of these symptoms are happening in more than one setting, if some of these symptoms have been going on since before a child was 7 years old, and if these symptoms are getting to the point where they’re causing impairment or trouble for a child, then it could very well be ADHD.
Joseph Gonzalez-Heydrich, MD, Chief, Psychopharmacology Program
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ADD vs. ADHD
The terms ADHD and ADD actually refer to the same disorder. ADD is an older term used to differentiate children who had just primary attention problems from kids who had attention problems and hyperactivity. The majority of children, about 85 percent, have some combination of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. A small percentage (about 10%) of kids, have just attentional problems. All of the ADHD/ADD disorders are treated in the same way: a combination of medication and behavioral interventions that help overcome the troubles that these children and their families face with their illnesses.
Stuart Goldman, MD, Director of Medical Education, Department of Psychiatry
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Different names for the same group of kids
There have been a lot of terms used over the past 50 years to describe children in adolescence who have attentional and activity issues. The names have ranged from minimal brain dysfunction to hyperactivity disorder to ADD to ADHD. In general, these names take different looks at what are really very similar groups of kids who have problems sustaining their attention. People have tried to organize groups they think will be helpful for treatment decisions and possibly be helpful for understanding the etiology of the disorders.
Leonard Rappaport, MD, MS, Director, Developmental Medicine Center
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Different kinds of ADHD
There are 3 kinds of ADHD. The most common type is what we call the Combined Type, when both hyperactive and inattentive symptoms are present. There are some kids who do not have any hyperactive symptoms, but just have the problems with attention; we call that having the Predominately Inattentive subtype of ADHD. There is a smaller number of kids who only have the hyperactive and impulsive symptoms and don’t have any trouble with attention, and those kids have what we call the Hyperactive/Impulsive subtype.
Joseph Gonzalez-Heydrich, MD, Chief, Psychopharmacology Program
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