ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book compares the use of stimulant medication alone, with stimulant medication combined with multimodal treatments. It provides an excellent review of the basic and clinical neuroscience of stimulant drugs and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The book argues that it was not clear that ADHD-I, the predominantly inattentive type of ADHD, was actually a subtype of ADHD sharing a common attention deficit with other types. It explores how applicable were the diagnostic thresholds set for the two main DSM-IV subtypes to age groups outside those used in the DSM-IV field trial The book shows self-report of DSM criteria was used, persistence into adulthood was 3%, but when an empirical definition was used, persistence was increased to 28%. It defines a developmentally relative disorder at the extreme end of a normal psychological trait.
