This paper explores at the processes of medicalization and medicinalization of childhood, using attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADD/H) as the analyzer. The results from a qualitative study carried out by an interdisciplinary team during 2008 in four Argentine jurisdictions (Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area, Corrientes, Salta and Tierra del Fuego) are presented. Discourse from the field of medicine (pediatricians, childhood- adolescence psychiatrists and pediatric neurologists) regarding the diagnostic construct of ADD/H and its therapeutic approach are explored, in relation to the public and private systems. In a complementary manner, the marketing mechanisms of pharmaceutical industry are investigated. Through the diagnostic construct of ADD/H, it can be seen how certain conducts and/or situations that had not been medicalized in the past have now become part of medical treatment, in which the main emphasis is on prescribing drugs as therapy.
Childhood; Medicalization; Psychoactive drugs