The History of ADHD
The history of ADHD...the first person to describe ADD ADHD (attention deficit disorder) in its commonly accepted sense was Dr. Heinrich Hoffman.
Contrary to popular belief, this work was not a recent occurrence, but happened way back in 1845. Dr. Hoffman was a physician at the time, who focused his attention on creating books about medicine and psychiatry.
The history of ADHD...One of his more notable quirks was his adoration for writing poetry, and writing for children, in order to occupy himself when he was unable to locate any reading material of which he approved for his 3-year-old son.
The result of this interest was Dr. Hoffman's book of poems, which contained everything from children's poetry, to illustrations.
What was so special about this book was its unique attention to children and their characteristics - something completely innovative at the time. An example of his work included "The Story of Fidgety Philip," which gave a staggeringly accurate, and yet entertaining description of a young boy who would today be diagnosed with ADD ADHD.
It wasn't until 1902 that such characteristics were actually studied by the medical community, as was done by Sir George F. Still, who created, and published a series of lectures for the Royal College of Physicians in England.
History of ADHD...These lectures examined a group of children who were notably impulsive, along with other significant problems of behavior. These issues were believed to be of a genetic dysfunction, as opposed to a result of poor child rearing by the care givers.
Today, this condition would easily have been identified as ADD ADHD.
Since that time, in the history of ADHD, there have been thousands upon thousands of scientific, academic, and medical papers written with regards to this disorder, providing a sizeable amount of information with regards to its causes, its nature, its progression, and its treatments.
