Adult ADHD and the Ethics of Medicalization: Between Recognition and Diagnostic Expansion

This paper analyzes the emergence of adult ADHD through a historical and conceptual lens, situating it between clinical recognition and medicalization. It traces key shifts from early moral and organic models to its current classification as a neurodevelopmental disorder in the DSM-5. The paper argues that adult ADHD is a hybrid phenomenon: both a valid clinical recognition of persistent difficulties and a result of diagnostic expansion shaped by sociocultural factors such as neurodiversity and pharmaceuticalization.