<論文>医療化の周辺 : ADHDの出現とその功罪

Abstract

This article aims to examine the effects of emergence and diffusion of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) in Japan, especially in the field of pedagogy. In the 1980s, ADHD was listed on DSM-III, the classification of American Psychiatric Association. By 1999, the term ADHD was introduced to Japan, first by a book written for parents who have ADHD children. Also on the governmental level, by the end of the twentieth century in Japan, the Minister of Education decided to introduce American psychiatric diagnostic criteria partially to the education system of primary and secondary schools. The application of the criteria, however, provoked certain problems. a) The brighter side of the application: medically exact diagnosis of ADHD. Problematic behaviour of children was once considered as "childishness". Medical diagnosis has led teachers and parents to abstain from excessive reproach that might lower the children's self-esteem. b) The darker side: confusion between ADHD and quasi-ADHD. ADHD became a magic word that allows teachers, sometimes unjustly, to hold the disease responsible for many other problems at school: wandering in class, violence, long absence from school, etc. Becoming scapegoat of a sort, difficult children who were simply called "childish" have now become suspects of mental disorder. Psychiatric doctors and psychologists, on the one hand, insist on the importance of showing understanding towards the disease, and spread information about it. On the other hand, the term "ADHD" has become so popular and handy that it can be used less carefully to a simply difficult child. In conclusion, it is argued that this paradox of medicalization occurred largely in the process of the information diffusion, rather than as an effect of the discovery of the disease.