The aim of this research was to investigate the way in which ADHD is understood and constructed within Romania and Scotland, comparing and contrasting the discourses that constitute ADHD within different cultural contexts.Overall, this study employed a mixed method design based on a concurrent nested approach which was undertaken in 2 phases. In phase 1, 50 parents, 72 primary school teachers and 48 support staff from Scotland, and 50 parents, 86 primary school teachers and 57 support staff from Romania, completed a self-report questionnaire that measured their knowledge and attitudes towards ADHD. The statistical results showed that, for the knowledge of ADHD test, both sample of parents, teachers and support staff scored the highest at symptoms/diagnosis subscale. Parents,teachers and support staff from the Romanian sample scored the lowest at the treatment subscale whereas the Scottish respondents had difficulties in answering questions about the nature, causes and prognosis of ADHD. In terms of their self-reported attitudes, both samples of Scottish and Romanian parents, teachers and support staff scored the highest on the affective attitude subscale. Scottish teachers and support staff scored the lowest on the behavioural attitude subscale whereas Romanian teachers and support staff scored the lowest on the cognitive attitude subscale. On the other hand, both samples of Scottish and Romanian parents scored the lowest on the behavioural attitude subscale. These patterns were further explored in phase 2 of the study, where 5 Scottish and Romanian mothers, 3 Scottish and Romanian primary-school teachers and 3 Scottish and Romanian support staff were selected to take part in a semi-structured interview. Parents, teachers and support staff from both countries responded within a medical model of disability employing themes such as ADHD as a medical condition, the medicalisation of behaviour, behaviour as out of control or the specialness of ADHD. However, participants also adopted a social conceptualisation of ADHD, referring to ADHD as a social phenomenon, resisting medicalisation and describing the educational and medical "wrongs". Reflecting the uncertainty in the field, participants’ conceptualisation of ADHD expanded, modified or even shifted from one perspective to another. The cross-cultural comparisons used the Appadurai's theoretical framework of "scapes" to explain the global nature of ADHD as well as the differences between Scottish and Romanian parents, teachers and support staff in relation to the three most important results of this study: treatment of ADHD, inclusion of children diagnosed with ADHD in mainstream education and parents’ and teachers’ willingness to get involved. The findings have been used to develop a multidisciplinary framework for support, empowering teachers and parents with knowledge of ADHD and improving cross-professional relationships. The fundamental idea of this framework is that it moves beyond the deficit paradigm, helping teachers, parents and stakeholders to be alert and responsive to the various conceptualisations of ADHD and to understand how these schemata have come into existence in specific periods of time and in different cultural contexts.

Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder diagnoses have been rising steadily since the early 1990s. Today, about 10 percent of the school-aged population has been diagnosed with the disorder, and prevalence is increasing steadily among preschool children and adults. Most of the individuals diagnosed with the disorder use stimulant medications to treat the symptoms. Both the rapidly rising number of diagnoses and the substantial variation in prevalence and treatment utilization -- across states, regions, gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status -- have attracted attention and raised concerns about under and over recognition and treatment. The implicit justification for the increasing awareness and recognition of the disorder is that it is a valid clinical object that matches medically-proven treatments with those reliably expected to benefit from them. From this perspective, the uptake in prevalence results from changes in environmental determinants or scientific advances in neurology, psychiatry, diagnostic protocols, or pharmaceutical research. But a widespread argument among teachers, parents, policy makers, the general public, and academic researchers -- including sociologists -- is that the development and success of the disorder results from a medicalization process. Medicalization encompasses a social construction critique that contradicts the environmental/scientific advance claims, but medicalization research also emphasizes macro-level actors that forcibly advance the medical label and treatment. Traditionally, medicalization studies focused on the disproportionate power of the medical profession vis-a-vis patients, but more recently they have begun to emphasize a broader range of actors pursuing a medical label -- pharmaceutical companies and even consumers influenced by new forms of advertising. Those arguments assume that educational institutions act in concert with those pushing the medical label. The goal of this dissertation is to provide an account of diagnostic prevalence and treatment utilization (and their uneven distribution) that debunks explanations based solely in science but that also demonstrates the insufficiency of the medicalization account. Together, the chapters show that there is no correlation in timing between the surge in diagnoses and the processes implied by either medicalization or scientific progress arguments, there is little support in the micro-level data for a strictly medicalization account, and there is substantial evidence that macro-level educational institutions and the school context play a significant role in reshaping the category. The chapters emphasize that the success of the category lies in the confluence of technoscientific innovation, social control of troublesome behaviors, the increased activism of parents along with direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising, encroachments of the law into student discipline and into the health care industry, the institutional needs of schools, a cultural emphasis on high academic achievement, and the influence of parallel and predecessor classifications, among other factors. The category -- a result of multiple institutions working to recraft expertise – is a school-specific medical disorder that includes a heterogeneous symptom complex, one that is understood differently within school and medical milieu. Although the chapters do not disprove medicalization, they suggest that the medicalization framework overstates the importance of medical professionals and medicine broadly defined for the success of the category.

Thesis (M.Tech.: Chiropractic)-Dept. of Chiropractic, Durban Institute of Technology, 2003 xiv, 86 leaves / The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of Chiropractic Manipulative Therapy in the management of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in children.

Due to increased concern about malingered self-report of symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in college students, there is a need for instruments that can detect feigning. The present study provided further validation data for a recently developed validity scale for the Conners’ Adult ADHD Rating Scale (CAARS), the CAARS Infrequency Index (CII). The sample consisted of 139 undergraduate students; 21 individuals with diagnoses of ADHD, 29 individuals responding honestly, 54 individuals responding randomly (full or half), and 35 individuals assigned to malinger. The CII demonstrated modest sensitivity to malingering (.31-.46) and excellent specificity to ADHD (.91-.95). Sequential application of validity scales had correct classification rates of honest (93.1%), ADHD (81.0%), malingering (57.1%), half random (42.3%), and full random (92.9%).

Previous research has clearly established the efficacy of behavioral parent training approaches for the treatment of Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of a parent training program utilizing cognitive-behavioral strategies of self-instruction with ADHD children. Parents of 35 elementary school-age children referred for treatment of their children's chronic inattention, impulsivity, and restlessness were randomly assigned to one of three groups: behavioral parent training, self-instructional parent training, or a parent support group. Outcome measures collected prior to and after treatment and at a 1-month follow-up included a parent-report measure of child behavioral problems in the home, parent-report of behavior problem pervasiveness across home settings, and a teacher-report measure of school behavior. The integrity of treatment procedures was assessed via process inventories completed by parents following each session and by expert ratings of session audiotapes. No systematic differences between conditions were noted with respect to the group leader's style, and integrity of the treatment groups was validated by the expert audiotape ratings. The results indicated that self-instructional and behavioral parent training appeared to produce significant reductions in parent-rated measures of global behavior problems and ADHD-related behaviors which were maintained at 1-month follow-up. There was no generalization of treatment effects to the school setting for any group. The results suggest that self-instructional parent training is an effective treatment for ADHD children.

Background: ADHD is a neuropsychiatric diagnosis that has increased in recent years. When students start school and the requirements to be able to concentrate increases visibility students with ADHD clearer. Students' perceptions of the school environment is affected by the school's response. Aim and method: The aim of this literature review is to describe experiences of being treated at school as a student with an ADHD diagnose. Results: Students' experiences was affected by the response of teachers and classmates depended on if their approach were friendly or not. Students experienced non friendly approach as an insult. They feel lower self-esteem, became sad and angry, they got worse outcomes, feel excluded when replaced in remedial classes. When teachers and classmates were friendly in their approach students could experience joy and happiness, they understood the instructions better and had they felt like there was in the group. An important part of the experience was also due to how much knowledge the teachers had about the diagnosis, what demands they made and how the school environment in general looked. Students' perception was that the teachers with more knowledge had better approach which also classmates embraced and student feelings became less stressful and that feeling of exclusion reduced. Conclusion: This study provides a deeper understanding of how students with ADHD experience their education and treatment in their school enviroment. These findings may be useful in the school environment, by health care and other care contexts.

Idag uppskattas att cirka fem procent av alla skolbarn i Sverige har ADHD. Symtomen yttrar sig som överdriven hyperaktivitet, impulsivitet samt koncentrationssvårigheter, vilket kan medföra stora problem både i skolan, hemmet och i sociala sammanhang. Bristande kunskap leder till att individer i samhället har en stigmatiserad bild av diagnosen, detta påverkar individer med ADHD negativt. Genom att ha analyserat 10 vetenskapliga kvalitativa artiklar där nyckelfynd om barn och vuxnas upplevelser av att växa upp med ADHD har plockats ut, har ett nytt resultat växt fram. Det framkom i resultatet att när lärare och föräldrar var stöttande, accepterande, omtänksamma och hjälpsamma klarade barnen med ADHD av vardagen på ett mer hanterligt sätt. Barnen upplevde att det var enklare att fokusera i en strukturerad miljö där aktivt och kreativt lärande förekom. Fasta rutiner, regler samt struktur var något som var betydelsefullt för barnen. Vidare tyder resultatet på att det var krävande att växa upp med ADHD. Deltagarna kände sig annorlunda och hade svårt att passa in i sociala sammanhang. När omgivningen inte visade acceptans och förståelse för barnets beteende, upplevde de bland annat frustration, vilket i sin tur resulterade i konflikter och bråk. Det framkom i studien att deltagarna upplevde bristfälligt stöd och hjälp från sjukvården, och fick därför söka information om sin diagnos på egen hand. Bemötandet var viktigt för barn med ADHD och det är därför betydelsefullt att omgivningen, såväl som allmänsjuksköterskan, får en ökad förståelse och acceptans för barnets beteende. Det kan bidra till att livssituationen för individen bli mer hanterbar. Eftersom ADHD är vanligt förekommande möter även allmänsjuksköterskan dessa barn inom vården. Genom att få kunskap om hur individer med ADHD upplever sin situation skapas en tydligare bild kring de behov som finns hos barnet. Kunskapen leder till att sjuksköterskan kan ge ett mer anpassat bemötande, stöd och information i samband med vårdandet. Syftet med denna studie var därför att belysa upplevelser av hur det är att växa upp med ADHD. / Background: Around five percent of all school children in Sweden are living with ADHD. ADHD is a neuropsychiatric disability which is manifested through hyperactivity, impulsiveness and difficulties to concentrate. As more children get diagnosed with ADHD, general nurses are required to meet these children more frequently in health care. It is therefore very important for the nurses to have good knowledge about how these children should be treated. Through increased knowledge about how children with ADHD experience their situation, a better understanding about the needs can be gained. Therefore the aim of this study was to illuminate experiences growing up with ADHD. Method: A literature-based study with analyses of qualitative studies was conducted. The analytical method was based on Friberg's five-step model. The results of a total of 10 scientific articles were compiled. Results: The result revealed three main themes and eight sub themes. The three main themes were; experiences of being different, the experiences of support and understanding from surroundings and impact from the environment. Conclusion: The result showed that the participants were affected by how they were treated by society. An accepting and understanding environment enabled the children to better manage daily life. Better understanding of ADHD by the society, including general nurses, and an increased acceptance of the children’s behavior and how they should be treated, could change their daily life in a positive way.

The overall aims of this thesis were to develop and evaluate a screening instrument designed to detect gaming addiction symptoms in adolescents, to study associations between problematic gaming and psychiatric symptoms, to investigate the stability of problematic gaming, and to examine possible associations between gaming at baseline (W1) with problem gambling three years later (W2). The study population consisted of adolescents from the Survey of Adolescent Life in Västmanland SALVe Cohort (adolescents in Västmanland born in 1997 and 1999, and their parents), in two waves (2012, n = 1887; 2015, n = 1576), and adolescents from child and adolescent psychiatric clinics in Västmanland (2014, n = 242). The development of the Gaming Addiction Identification Test (GAIT) was based upon the research literature on gaming, gambling, and addiction. An expert panel estimated the content validity of the GAIT and found it to be excellent. Additional psychometric evaluations of the GAIT and the parent version, GAIT-P, were conducted and it was found that both versions showed promising psychometric results, with high internal consistency, high concurrent validity, high concordance, unidimensionality, and high factor loadings, although poor model fit in exploratory factor analysis. Self- and parent-rated prevalence of gaming addiction symptoms were estimated at 1.3% with the GAIT and 2.4% with the GAIT-P in 13- and 15-year-olds. Self-rated problematic gaming above the cutoff had a boy to girl ratio of approximately 5:1 in both the SALVe Cohort and the clinical sample, whereas more girls than boys reported symptoms above the cutoff for ADHD, depression, anxiety, and psychotic-like-experiences. ADHD, depression, and anxiety symptoms were associated with odds ratios of 2.43, 2.47, and 2.06, respectively, in relation to coexisting problematic gaming. Furthermore, problematic gaming was stable over time, and problematic gaming at the first wave was associated with problem gambling three years later. It is important to screen for possible co-occurring symptoms among those who seek treatment and among those who appear to have symptoms of gaming, gambling, or psychiatric symptoms. Ongoing evaluation of adequate screening and diagnostic measurements, and the development and evaluation of treatments for problematic gaming, gaming addiction, and comorbid conditions are needed.

Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) experience a significant number of psychological symptoms and behavioral problems which negatively affect their interactions within their families. The purpose of the present study was to explore the perceptions of family environment of boys with ADHD and their mothers and compare them to those of nonreferred boys and their mothers. Maternal reports of emotional distress and perceptions of hyperactive behavior in the two groups of boys were also studied.

M.A. (Psychology) / Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), characterised by problems relating to attention, impulsive behaviour and hyperactivity, has become widely accepted to be a neurodevelopmental disorder that persists into adulthood for a large proportion of the ADHD population. ADHD symptoms are reported to undergo developmental transformation from childhood to adulthood, resulting in a significantly different clinical picture of adult ADHD. This signals a need to move away from reliance on childhood models of the disorder. Current conceptions of both childhood and adult ADHD do not discuss the occurrence of hyperfocus (or flow), a symptom which seems to connote an extreme form of sustained attention and which has been noted in clinical work. The possibility that hyperfocus could occur in ADHD is unexpected and poses a challenge to current formulations of inattention in ADHD. Media settings have been identified as providing the conditions needed for one to enter the hyperfocus state. This study set out to explore the possible symptom of hyperfocus in ADHD and to attempt to identify the neural correlates thereof, using electroencephalograph (EEG). A sample of 10 participants (5 ADHD, 5 non-ADHD) was recruited using the Adult ADHD Self Report Scale V-1.1 (ASRS V-1.1) Screener and a biographical questionnaire. A quasi-experimental research design was employed, whereby EEG recordings of frontal, frontal midline and parietal regions were taken for each participant during resting states (Eyes Closed and Eyes Open) and whilst playing a first person shooter game. Post-test survey questionnaires were also administered to examine the participants’ time perception during game play. Between-group and within-group differences in absolute and relative power scores were examined, using non-parametric statistical methods (Mann-Whitney-U test and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test) to analyse the data. Possible markers for hyperfocus were identified, namely significantly lower alpha and beta levels in the ADHD group, as well as a decrease in slow-wave activity over time, as well as post-test survey data that indicated a greater degree of distorted time perception in the ADHD group during game play. Significant between- and within-group differences found in the parietal region highlight the need for further research into the role of the parietal lobe in attention functions and in ADHD. Further, significant changes in cortical activity in the progression from Eyes Closed to Eyes Open in both groups warrant further investigation.