Dr. Gabor Maté, Trauma and ADHD

Dr. Gabor Maté is a Vancouver physician who has written extensively on trauma and addiction. He has done a lot to raise awareness of the plight of those suffering from substance addiction here in B.C. and I admire his work tremendously. However, he is not beyond critique. In particular his account of ADHD as a consequence of childhood trauma is, in my opinion, misleading and not evidence-based. If you have read Dr Maté’s book “Scattered Minds” then you might also want to check out this video by Dr. Russell Barkley. Dr. Barkley was probably the world’s most eminent ADHD researcher (he is now retired) so it’s interesting to see just how strongly he disagrees with Dr. Maté’s basic position.

So where does this controversy leave us as ADHD sufferers, particularly those of us who have survived childhood trauma? Well, the interesting thing about the trauma theory is that it isn’t particularly useful when it comes to ADHD treatment. There is no evidence that trauma-based treatments such as EMDR are useful for ADHD symptoms such as inattentiveness. The medications that would sometimes be helpful for trauma survivors are generally unhelpful for ADHD. In other words, trauma theory doesn’t take us anywhere useful with regard to treating ADHD. If we have trauma and ADHD, we are probably looking at two parallel processes of treatment and healing.

Of course people with ADHD experience childhood trauma. This unfortunately happens all the time due to unsupportive educational, family and work environments, bad socio-economics and a multitude of other factors. ADHD symptoms will not be helped and will almost certainly be aggravated by adverse childhood experience. However, it is not necessary or useful for most of us to assume that the trauma caused the ADHD.