Identifying Hyperactive Children

This is a new and expanded edition of a classic case-study in the medicalization of ADHD, originally published in 1976. The book centres on an empirical study of the process of identifying hyperactive children, providing a perceptive and accessible introduction to the concepts and issues involved. In this revised edition, Peter Conrad sets the original study in context, demonstrating the continuing relevance of his research. He highlights the issues at stake, outlining recent changes in our understanding of ADHD and reviewing recent sociological research. Peter Conrad is Harry Coplan Professor of Social Sciences at Brandeis University, USA. He has written extensively in the area of medical sociology, publishing nine books and over eighty articles and chapters.

Peter Conrad is Harry Coplan Professor of Social Sciences at Brandeis University, USA. He has written extensively in the area of medical sociology, and published over eighty articles and chapters and nine books.

Contents: Series Editor's Preface; Introduction to the expanded edition; Foreword to the original edition, Mark A. Stewart; Preface to the original edition; Introduction: sociology, illness, and deviant behavior; The discovery of Hyperkinesis; Methodology; The setting and the sample; Identifying behavior as deviant and defining deviance as a medical problem: audience reactions to children's behavior; The social construction of hyperactivity: uncertainty and medical diagnosis; The medicalization of deviant behavior; Toward a social system approach to hyperactivity: situational hyperactivity; Clinic outcomes, conclusions, and areas for further research; Epilogue: a theory of the medicalization of deviant behavior; Epilogue 2000: from hyperactive children to ADHD adults: observations on the expansion of medical categories, Peter Conrad and Deborah Potter; Appendices; References; Index.