Mandi:
Do I understand you correctly that you will not accept the existence of ADHD until you see enough neuropathological studies involving actual physical cytoarchitectonic analysis of ADHD brains (like the analyses done on dyslexic brains by Galabruda, Kemper, Geshwind, Sherman and others).
Since you mentioned that you have read studies that indicate that there are no observable differences between the brains of ADHD and non ADHD individuals, I assume you have read but dismissed the studies that have shown that the caudate nucleus and the global pallidus structures of the basal ganglia, as well as the cerebellum and the frontal cortex have been found to be smaller in individuals with ADHD. Further, the bands of fibers in the corpus callosum was thinner in the posterior frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes of the two hemispheres in children with ADHD than in the hemispheres of the control groups. Also, measurements of the thickness of cortex showed that gray matter was reduced in inferior frontal cortex and anterior temporal lobes, but increased in the posterior temporal cortices and inferior parietal cortex. (The measurement studies were published in the Lancet which, as you know, is a British journal.)
As far as the diagnosis process is concerned, as with dyslexia, without cutting open the skull, we cannot tell with total certainty if a person actually has ADHD.
Like dyslexia, we must rely on a set of established characteristics and symptoms to classify a person as having ADHD. Unfortunately, this is not an in fallible method of determining if a person has ADHD.
(In case you a wondering "what does she I know about dyslexia", I have been a member of the International Dyslexia Association for 19 years (when it was still the Orton Dyslexia Society), and I have studied dyslexia, and have worked with children who have dyslexia all these years, and I continue to study it. Consequently, I have had many opportunities to hear and talk with experts in the field such as Dr. Gordon Sherman who was Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard, and did brain research with Dr. Geshwind at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston, Mass.)
