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DAMP

To find any good information for DAMP in English has proved very difficult so for the moment the small amount we have found may help people to get some idea of the condition and the links this has to ADD/ADHD and prossible Dyspraxia. Thanks to The DAMP Association of Denmark for the information we have found so far.

DAMP (Deficits in Attention, Motor Control and Perception) is a descriptive diagnosis introduced by the Swedish professor C. Gillberg in the 1980'es.

Attention Deficits are common to the diagnoses DAMP and ADHD.

The difference between the diagnoses is that the diagnosis DAMP requires that the child, the young person, or the adult also has deficits in Motor control and Perception. Thus the definition of DAMP is narrower than that of ADHD.

When ADHD is combined with motor-perceptual problems (also referred to as Developmental Coordination Disorder or dyspraxia) some clinicians refer to DAMP (Deficits in Attention, Motor control and Perception). When problems are very severe and all the diagnostic features listed below are present the criteria for Hyperkinetic Disorder may be met. Thus, ADD, DAMP, and Hyperkinetic Disorder are all subtypes of ADHD.

References:

Gillberg, Christopher, Clinical child neuropsychiatry. - Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1995. - 366 p. - ISBN 0-521-43388-6. Chapter 8: Deficits in attention, motor control and perception, and other syndromes attributed to minimal brain dysfunction. p. 138-172.
Brown, Thomas E. Attention-deficit disorders and comorbidities in children, adolescents, and adults/Thomas E. Brown (ed.). - Washington DC ; London : American Psychiatric Press, 2000. - 671 p. - ISBN 0-88048-711-9
Chapter 12: Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder and Developmental Coordination Disorder/Christopher Gillberg and Björn Kadesjö. p. 393-406.

I have just received an email from Birgit Christiansen who is Direktør of DAMP-foreningen which is the organisation I speak of above who has just sent me the following information about DAMP:

About DAMP (Deficits in Attention, Motor Control and Perception)

As you know literature and information about DAMP is almost only written in Danish or Swedish as DAMP until now has been a diagnosis used only in the Nordic countries. In Denmark we are going from DAMP to ADHD and from September this year the association is changing name from DAMP-foreningen to ADHD-foreningen. The doctors diagnosing will say ADHD with co morbid DCD.

DAMP (Deficits in Attention, Motor Control and Perception) is a descriptive diagnosis introduced by the Swedish professor C. Gillberg in the 1980´es.

DAMP = ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) with co morbid DCD (Developmental Coordination Disorder).

So it rather looks as if some of our clinicians here in the UK are now deciding to use the term DAMP rather than ADHD just as the countries who first gave the name DAMP to ADHD have decided to now start using the term ADHD instead of DAMP - Very strange!!

© adders.org 2004

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