Hyperkinetic behaviour, attention deficit disorder, conduct disorder and instabilitépsychomotrice: identity, analogies, and misunderstandings commentary to Gordonʹs paper (Brain Dev 1994;15: 169-72)

Hyperkinetic behaviour’, ‘attention deficit disorder’ and ‘conduct disorder’ with antisocial aspects or delinquency are concepts frequently superimposed. They can be traced back to the classic nosological entity, ‘instabilitépsychomotrice’, still used in French psychiatric nosography. In this paper, the different components of the condition are analyzed (emotional, attentional, posturo-motoic and behavioural) both in normal subjects and in cases of mild encephalopathies, and for different age groups. A criticism is advanced towards the undifferentiated approach to the problem in the most current literature.