• 1902 - The earliest recorded account of a disorder with symptoms similar to that of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) was reported by George Still. In 1902, Still presented a lecture series informing the public about 20 children under his medical care. Still described the inattentiveness and behavioral disturbances of the children as the result of a "morbid defect in moral control."
• 1937 - The first year in which medication was used to treat behavioral disturbances in children; Bradley gave children the amphetamine Benzedrine.
• 1940s - Physicians noticed that some children displayed some symptoms of brain injury despite lacking any apparent signs of head trauma. The doctors assumed these children must have received some minor brain damage, and dubbed the condition "Minimal Brain Damage."
• 1957 - Methlyphenidate, now commonly known as Ritalin, was first introduced as a pharmacological treatment. While methylphenidate is currently used to treat ADHD, the understanding of this condition was limited at the time of the drug's release.
• 1966 - The first year that physicians considered that hyperactivity among children might be due to the "wiring" or structure of the brain; in this year the condition "Minimal Brain Dysfunction" was used to describe such a condition.
• 1968 - The first description of the symptoms of ADHD appeared in the second edition of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual in this year. The initial description emphasized hyperactive symptomology over attention deficits.
• 1980 - The third edition of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual was released, and introduced the term Attention Deficit Disorder. The primary diagnostic criteria in this edition was inattentiveness; according to the DSM-III someone could have Attention Deficit Disorder with or without hyperactivity. A revised edition, the DSM-III-R, changed the criteria and required hyperactivity in order to diagnose the disorder, which was renamed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD.
• 1994 - The fourth and most recent edition of the DSM was released and further revised the scope of the disorder to include inattentive, hyperactive, and combined type ADHD, which are described more thoroughly in the "Diagnosis" section of this website.

(http://www.strattera.com/1_3_childhood_adhd/1_3_1_1_2_history.jsp)

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