Computerized training of working memory is a promising therapeutic strate...( Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disor...),Health

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a state of serious impairments in both learning ability and social functioning, is one of many labels for one of the most prevalent conditions in child psychiatry, and, undoubtedly, the most controversial, which partly persists into adulthood. ADHD is conservatively estimated to occur in 3,07,5% of school-age children (Goldman et al., 1998), but more permissive criteria yield estimates of up to 17% (Barbaresi et al., 2002). Up to 20% of boys in some school systems receive psychostimulants for the treatment of ADHD (LeFever et al., 1999). Partly in response to legitimate concern about an apparent rapid increase in its prevalence in the 1990s, investigators have unsuccessfully attempted to formulate a single theory of ADHD, that would facilitate the development of an objective diagnosis test.

Aetiological factors of ADHD include not only genetic variations or mutations, but also environmental factors (brain injury and stroke, severe early deprivation, family psychosocial adversity and maternal smoking during pregnancy) and, most importantly and most difficult to identify, interactions between genes, and between genes and the environment. These factors are the initial causes of the multiple conditions that manifest symptomatically as ADHD, and their eventual identification should be accorded high priority.

The current criteria for the diagnosis of ADHD, published by the American Psychiatric Association in the 1994 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (fourth edition; DSM-IV), are the most widely used and form our starting point. Other proposed criteria include those for the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (tenth revision; ICD-10) diagnosis of hyperkinetic disorder, which represents a more severe and refined subset of DSM-IV ADHD, but which does not recognize the DSM-IV predominantly inattentive subtype (Castellanos & Tannock, 2002).
'/>"/>