The Medicalization of America's Schools by Joel Macht

Author:Joel Macht
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

What is “phenotype?” In plain language, a child’s behavior. More technically, “the set of observable characteristics [behaviors] resulting from the interaction of a child’s genotype with the environment.” Genotype? That’s an individual’s innate genetic identity.

Professor Barkley’s remarkable statement that genes account for some 80% of ADHD is factually and semantically inaccurate. Once again, ADHD is the name psychiatry chose to use. It’s a convenient construct that represents what a child does. That’s its role, like “height” represents inches from a person’s toes to her crown, and “weight” represents numbers that register on an applicable scale. Before one can even challenge Barkley’s extraordinary declaration, the man’s statement must read, “genes account for 80% of a child’s phenotype.” In other words, genes account for 80% of a child’s selected, directly observable behavior, his/her actions: doesn’t answer questions, talks too much, runs around too much, doesn’t finish assignments, is inattentive and disruptive, cries when corrected.

Regardless of the chosen behavioral outcome measures, such a claim that genes account for 80% of a child’s behavior would be impossible to verify, a child’s contributing (and confounding) environment ever-present from birth.” As pointed out moments ago, “The problem is [always] one of separating nature [genetics] from nurture [environmental learning].”

More to the point, no self-regulating researcher would ever suggest that eye-popping degree of relationship between genes and a child’s school/home-related behavior, even if several of the behaviors were “ADHD-like.” The figure 80%, representing how much variance (influence) genes have on a child’s behavior, implies that Moms and Dads and the rest of a child’s environment have had minimal effect on the youngster’s everyday conduct. You think? Give your parents a buzz and get their take, whether they were just twiddling their toes and smelling the rubarb while you were being led around your world by your genes.

When you see how such genetic-ADHD attribution research is conducted, you’ll understand why the claim is untenable. In the name of genetics, we’re prone to taking lots of liberties.

Claims that genes account for 80% of ADHD are based mostly on reported findings from researchers who investigated the presence or absence of ADHD-like behaviors within the population of monozygotic twins (identical twins) and dizygotic twins (fraternal twins), some of the children raised by natural parents, some by adoptive parents.163 On the surface, the research is straightforward. Offering you the short version, the gene-attribution researchers do something like the following.

They identify two kids, one purportedly exhibiting ADHD-like behaviors, one who does not, the differentiation according to teachers or parents who judged the children’s behaviors. Blood is drawn from the children and genes are checked.

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