Bart Simpson and Attention Deficit Disorder

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a psychological disorder that affects 2.6 million school-aged children and 2-5 million adults. About 1% to 3% of school-aged children has the full ADHD syndrome without symptoms of other disorders. Another 5% to 10% have a partial ADHD syndrome with one with other problems such as anxiety or depression. Another 15% to 20% may show brief or masked behaviors suggestive of ADHD. Boys are three times more likely than girls to have symptoms of ADHD. Between 30% and 50% of children still have symptoms of ADHS in adulthood. (CHADD) Many children who have attention deficit disorder are categorized as someone who has a “behavioral problem”, is “unmotivated”, or is “not intelligent enough”. (CHADD)The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has a link on its website to Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD) website. The APA’s Diagnostic and Statistics Manual (DSM-IV) categorizes people who have attention deficit disorder into three categories: inattention, hyperactivity, and impassivity, this paper will focus on the first of the three categories. The DSM-IV categorizes Attention Deficit Disorder as a “disorder usually first diagnosed in infancy, childhood, and adolescence”. (DSM-IV 83-84)