ADHD: A Cross Cultural Examination of Measured Prevalence

The global prevalence rate of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a widely contested subject. The measured prevalence rate of ADHD in children in the United States is roughly twice as high as global estimates (CDC, 2012, Polanczyk et al., 2007), and the reasons for this discrepancy are disputed. To complicate matters, the clinical research community devoted to examining ADHD has become increasingly polarized between those who believe the disorder to be a genetically based biological condition and those who believe ADHD to be more of a cultural construct that seeks to medicalize nonconformist behavior. The contemporary literature surrounding ADHD and its prevalence usually comes from one of these two theoretical camps, and their opinions differ greatly as to what influences the measured prevalence rates of ADHD in the United States, and rarely give space to consider opinions from the opposing side. This literature review draws evidence from the most convincing arguments presented by these oppositional areas of research to compare and contrast factors that may cause measured prevalence rates of ADHD to be significantly higher in the United States than in other parts of the world. The paper is separated into two sections: Factors that may work to suppress the measured prevalence rates in other parts of the world and factors that may work to inflate measured prevalence in the United States past global averages