ADHD - An Illustrated historical overview

A nother strong input throughout most of the 20 th century was the concept of hyperkinesia, culminating in the work of Kramer/Pollnow, and further investigated by Maurice Laufer and Stella Chess. Laufer and co-work- ers described the “Hyperkinetic Behav- ior Syndrome in Children” and the „Hy- perkinetic Impulse Disorder” in 1957, while Chess published an influential article in 1960 in which she presented her experiences with hyperactive chil- dren as well as therapeutic options. Reflecting this thought, the disorder was mentioned in the 2 nd edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM II) in 1968 as the "hyperkinetic reaction of childhood", then "attention-deficit disorder" in DSM-III (1980), and "attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder" in DSM-III-R (1987) and DSM-IV (1994). The most recent edition (DSM-V, 2013) will not make vital changes on the diagnostic concept, but relevant modifications include the age of onset, the symp- tomatic threshold for adults, and the removal of autism spectrum disorder from the exclusion criteria. In the WHO manual, the disorder was labeled as "hyperkinetic reaction of childhood" in ICD-8 (1974) as well as "hyperkinetic syndrome" (ICD-9) and "hyperkinetic disorders" (ICD-10), the latter term in- cluding subtypes of ADHD. The landmark article of Kramer/Pollnow appeared 1932 in the "Monatsschrift für Psychiatrie und Neurologie".