TPE2 wrote:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/10/autism-8217-s-first-child/8227/
Quote:
But children with autism will become adults with autism, some 500,000 of them in this decade alone. What then? Meet Donald Gray Triplett, 77, of Forest, Mississippi. He was the first person ever diagnosed with autism. And his long, happy, surprising life may hold some answers.
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Thank you for sharing the Atlantic article about autism.
So Autism dates from 1943.
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ADHD / the idea that the right central nervous system stimulant - alerting agent - can temporarily reduce some ADHD symptoms (not a cure) began in the USA around 1937.
ADHD - 1937 - Bradley
Amphetamine was first synthesised in 1889 by Edeleano. The benzedrine
inhaler, which contained 250 mg of amphetamine sulphate, was
introduced as a nasal and bronchial decongestant in 1932 by the Smith
Kline and French pharmaceutical company. These inhalers
unsurprisingly became very popular and were frequently misused.
Amphetamine was first produced in tablet form in 1935, at which time
it was marketed as a treatment for narcolepsy. In 1937, Charles
Bradley published his paper "The behaviour of children receiving
benzedrine". In it, he described his serendipitous observations that
stimulant medications could ameliorate a range of symptoms that we
now recognise as the core symptoms of ADHD.
His paper makes interesting reading and has been helpfully reprinted
as an appendix to a recent book (Solanto et al, 2001). There are now
two stimulants, methylphenidate and dexamphetamine, licensed for the
treatment of ADHD in the UK...
http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/training/cpd/a ... nidate/his
tory/drugtreatments.aspx
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Asperger
Autism - 1% of USA population - 2010 (estimate)
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/autism/autism.htm
ADHD - 4% of USA population - 2010 (estimate)
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/adhd/adhd.htm