Ps. Jensen et al., EVOLUTION AND REVOLUTION IN CHILD-PSYCHIATRY - ADHD AS A DISORDER OF ADAPTATION, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36(12), 1997, pp. 1672-1679
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.