Abstract

URIBE, Carlos Alberto  and  VASQUEZ ROJAS, Rafael. Cultural Factors in Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Moms Talk. rev.colomb.psiquiatr. [online]. 2007, vol.36, n.2, pp.255-291. ISSN 0034-7450.

Background: This is a research on clinical ethnography, also known as narrative-based medicine, which deals with the first-person perspectives of mothers with sons diagnosed with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) according to DSM-IV criteria. Objective: To analyze the cultural constructions which cross and intersect ADHD in a third world country of intermediate development, and to study the consequences of such notions in the search for clinical psychiatric help, as well as treatment outcome expectations. Methods: The study is qualitative, and it uses grounded hermeneutic theory as a research method increasingly applied within the field of the health-related professions to elicit detailed personal experiences of distress, in this case, of their son’s condition. The method is also used to detail the network of cultural idioms deployed in the attempts to instill a meaning to the illness. Conclusion: The ensuing analysis shows how clinical ethnography is a privileged approach to understand both the patient’s illness and the applicability of qualitative methods in clinical research.

Keywords : Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; narration; psychopharmacology; mental disorders; methylphenidate.

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