<P> The terminology used to describe the symptoms of Attention - Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, has gone through many changes over history, including "minimal brain damage", "minimal brain dysfunction", "learning / behavioral disabilities" and "hyperactivity". In the second edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, known as DSM - II (1968), the condition was called "Hyperkinetic Reaction of Childhood". It was in the 1980 DSM - III that "ADD (Attention - Deficit Disorder) with or without hyperactivity" was introduced . In 1987 this label was further refined to "ADHD (Attention - Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)" in the DSM - III - R and subsequent editions, including the current DSM - 5 . </P> <P> A number of early writers described human behaviour patterns similar to today's definitions of ADHD . </P> <P> In 1775, Melchior Adam Weikard, a prominent German physician, published the textbook Der Philosophische Arzt . Weikard's text contained a description of ADHD - like behaviours, possibly the first ever such description in medical literature Weikard described many of the symptoms now associated with the inattentive dimension of ADHD in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . For instance, according to the English translation provided by Barkley and Peters, Weikard stated that: </P> <P> An inattentive person won't remark anything but will be shallow everywhere . He studies his matters only superficially; his judgements are erroneous and he misconceives the worth of things because he does not spend enough time and patience to search a matter individually or by the piece with the adequate accuracy . Such people only hear half of everything; they memorize or inform only half of it or do it in a messy manner . According to a proverb they generally know a little bit of all and nothing of the whole.... They are mostly reckless, often copious considering imprudent projects, but they are also most inconstant in execution . They treat everything in a light manner since they are not attentive enough to feel denigration or disadvantages . </P>

Who identified the symptoms of the disorder we now call adhd