EVOLUTION AND REVOLUTION IN CHILD-PSYCHIATRY - ADHD AS A DISORDER OF ADAPTATION

Current knowledge about early plasticity and children's responsiveness to environmental modifications as well as the atheoretical nature of current nosological systems necessitate alternative models to explain the phenomena of childhood behavioral and emotional disturbances. Evol utionary biology provides one such framework. It organizes data from t he behavioral and cognitive sciences and parallels similar efforts in other areas of medicine and biology. Through an evolutionary biologica l lens, some mental disorders are better viewed as an adaptive respons e to early pathogenic environments and/or reflect the optimization of brain function to same environments at the cost of poorer response to the demands of other environments. As an example, the authors examine attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in relation to evoluti onary theories of psychology and biology and clarify the potentially a daptive nature of characteristics of inattention, impulsivity and moto ric hyperactivity, depending on the nature of child's environments. Re framing ADHD characteristics according to evolutionary theory has impo rtant treatment implications for clinicians and offers researchers opp ortunities for novel scientific discoveries.