Deficits in attention, motor control and perception

Who is Deficits in attention, motor control and perception?

DAMP—deficits in attention, motor control and perception—is a controversial psychiatric concept conceived by Christopher Gillberg.

DAMP is similar to Minimal Brain Dysfunction, a concept that was formulated in the 1960s. Both concepts are related to certain psychiatric conditions, such as hyperactivity. The concept of MBD was strongly criticized by Sir Michael Rutter [Gillberg, 2003, p.904] and several others researchers, and this led to its abandonment in the 1980s. At the same time, research showed that something similar was needed. One alternative concept was ADHD. Gillberg proposed another alternative: DAMP. Gillberg's concept was formulated in the early 1980s, and the term itself was introduced in a paper that Gillberg published in 1986.

The concept of DAMP met with considerable criticism. For example, Sir Michael Rutter stated that the concept of DAMP was "muddled" and "lacks both internal coherence and external discriminative validity ... it has no demonstrated treatment or prognostic implications"; he concluded that the concept should be abandoned. Another example is the criticism of Per-Anders Rydelius, Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Karolinska Institute, who argued that the definition of DAMP was too vague: "the borderline between DAMP and conduct disorders [is] unclear ... the borderline between DAMP and ADHD [is] unclear"; he concluded that "the concept is in need of revision". And in 2000, Eva Kärfve, a sociologist at the University of Lund, published a book which argued that Gillberg's work on DAMP should be rejected.