Myomancy ADHD, Dyslexia and Autism

Have you ever noticed how just about all life threatening diseases, such as meningitis, have the same symptoms as a cold? Headache, running a temperature, blocked nose. It could be cold or it could be about to kill you. Learning difficulties such as dyslexia and ADHD are similar. The same outward symptoms can have a lot different causes ranging from too much sugar and caffeine in the diet to permeant brain injuries. To matters worse, several of these causes can exist in the same person. Making diagnosis and treatment of the cause very difficult.
Today’s post on Chris Chatham’s always impressive Developing Intelligence blog is Multiple Causality in Developmental Disorders . It covers a study assessing how hard it is to differentiate and diagnose problems with a single causes and those with multiple causes. Whilst primarily a theoretical study it raises important questions about how we classify and diagnoses developmental problems.