Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
(abbreviated ADD) became a diagnosis in the third edition of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (1980); expanded to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ("the co-existence of attentional problems and hyperactivity, with each behavior occurring infrequently alone;" ADHD) in DSM-III (1987).
Wiktionary
n. A syndrome formerly thought to affect children only, but now known to also affect adults, that is characterized by frequent, chronic distractibility, and either inattentiveness or hyperactivity (fidgeting).
WordNet
n. a condition (mostly in boys) characterized by behavioral and learning disorders [syn: ADD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, hyperkinetic syndrome, minimal brain dysfunction, minimal brain damage, MBD]
Usage examples of "attention deficit disorder".
First, I should tell you - based on what you've told me - I'm not sure your daughter suffers from attention deficit disorder.
And if, already, some of the millions of schoolkids and adults labeled with ADD--Attention Deficit Disorder--and, put on drugs such as Ritalin, were starting to develop a Tourette-like syndrome, with facial tics and twitches that might be irreversible?
Prozac and some of the older antidepressants took almost a month to leave the system, so those people slipped into the fray more slowly than those on Zoloft or Paxil or Wellbutrin, which was flushed from the system in only a day or two, leaving the deprived with symptoms resembling a low-grade flu, then a scattered disorientation akin to a temporary case of attention deficit disorder, and, in some, a rebound of depression that dropped on them like a smoky curtain.
Dory had been held back a year because of attention deficit disorder.
In the most extreme cases of attention deficit disorder, particularly among young children, this fear always underlies the surface inattention.
In this day and age they'd probably diagnose me with attention deficit disorder.
Behavioral anomalies are seen as dietary, hormonal, some new spinoff of lead poisoning or attention deficit disorder.