How French media have portrayed ADHD to the lay public and to social workers

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ContextAttention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the mental disorder most often diagnosed among children. Despite thousands of studies, the biological causes of ADHD remain to be elucidated. Thus, two models of ADHD coexist: the biomedical and the psychosocial. By supporting one model over another, mass media strongly influence ADHD representation, individual decisions and health policies.MethodsWe identified in nine French newspapers 159 articles giving facts and opinions about ADHD from 1995 to 2015. We classified them according to the model they mainly supported and on the basis of what argument. We compared these results with those of our two previous studies describing how French TV programs and the specialized press read by social workers portrayed ADHD during the same period.ResultsTwo third (104/159) of the French newspaper articles mainly supported the biomedical model. The others either defended the psychodynamic understanding of ADHD or voiced both models. Neurological dysfunctions and genetic risk factors were mentioned in support of the biomedical model in only 26 and 8 articles, respectively. These biological arguments were less frequent during the most recent years. There was much less articles mentioning medication only than asserting that medication must be combined with psychosocial interventions (14 versus 57 articles). Only 11/159 articles claimed that medication protects from school failure. Thus, both French newspapers and the specialized press read by social workers mainly defended either the psychodynamic understanding of ADHD or a nuanced version of the biomedical model. In contrast, most French TV programs described ADHD as an inherited neurological disease whose consequences on school failure can be counteracted by a very effective medication.ConclusionRequests for ADHD diagnosis skyrocketed after each TV program. Indeed, television is the main source of health information for Europeans. It remains to elucidate why TV programs differ from newspapers articles.