Photo by The DNA Store

In the past I’ve talked with my friend James about ADHD. He’s taught autistic children for several years now and is privy to some information on topics like this. The focus of my conversations has usually centered around my theory that ADHD should be embraced as an evolutionary step forward instead of a disorder to be treated. In the past I’ve put forward that an ADHD mind is capable of multi-tasking and information processing more efficiently than a “regular” mind.

At Dragon*Con I was lucky enough to be surrounded by a few great thinkers including C. Kevin Barrett, professor of anthropology at Ohio State university. He was booked on a panel regarding evolution and by pure luck we happened to be drinking in the green together. The good Mr. Barrett confirmed that there may be something to my theory, although he’d never seen anything published on the subject. He did confirm to me that other countries (speaking from a United States perspective) don’t categorize ADHD as a disorder; although my own research yielded statements from the CDC claiming a recent rise of anti-ADHD drug use in many parts of the developed world. He went on the explain that he feels we (as a society) need to take a closer look at the kinds of ideas I was promoting.

The common beliefs held by the majority of the psychological research community can be summed up in papers like The Evolution of ADHD: A Disorder of Communication, published in 2000. This, however, doesn’t jive with the work of Harpending and Cochran at the University of Utah. In 2005 they published on how natural selection in the modern era has forced genetic changes in various ethnic groups. From Hue Hueteotl’s blog:

“The new study comes from two of the same University of Utah scientists — Harpending and Cochran — who created a stir in 2005 when they published a study arguing that above-average intelligence in Ashkenazi Jews — those of northern European heritage — resulted from natural selection in medieval Europe, where they were pressured into jobs as financiers, traders, managers and tax collectors. Those who were smarter succeeded, grew wealthy and had bigger families to pass on their genes. Yet that intelligence also is linked to genetic diseases such as Tay-Sachs and Gaucher in Jews.”

This would account for the amount of ADHD in recent years. I truly believe that the proliferation of television, video games, wireless devices and personal computing has forced a rapid genetic change in the populations of the developed world. The model could’ve started in the 1950′s with the baby boomers and slowly mushroomed within the middle socio-economic classes.  From nearly a decade ago the statistics concerning ADHD economic divisions focused on this being a disorder of the lower economic classes, (See The Harvard Mahoney Neuroscience Institute Letter Winter, 1996) but more recently Dr. Ronald Kessler of Havard Medical School referred to it as, “a boutique diagnosis for middle-class people.”

This suggests to me that there is much more at work here than a neurological disorder. This disorder appears to bridging economic and racial boundaries at an advancing and consistent rate, something that is uncommon for psychological disorders. This lends some additional credibility to the theory of ADHD being a genetic adaptation to environmental stimulation.

However, at BorntoExplore.com the idea that ADD is an evolutionary throw-back is an equally compelling scenario. They suggest that ADHD / ADD is a hard-wired hunting / gathering adaptation used in primitive man to locate prey and avoid obstacles.

Perhaps there is something to be said for a full circle approach to this. Maybe the ADHD genes were more active in ancient populations and are re-asserting themselves as a response to our information-saturated world. The analog could be that a screwdriver can be used as a knife, a a building tool or a make-shift hammer. Maybe nature is digging into her existing toolbox to try to find something that can be adapted to the challenges of a wired society? It certainly might make more sense than inventing a new adaption.