ABSTRACT
The standard for diagnosing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is to apply diagnostic criteria from DSM-IV (1). These criteria were derived using the most empirically sound methods ever used to formulate criteria for a psychiatric disorder. They have been adopted almost universally, and yet somehow they manage to foster both consensus and controversy about what ADHD is and how it should be identified. This chapter outlines the historical and scientific underpinnings of DSM-IV ADHD, and implications for ADHD in DSM-V.
