So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence. Bertrand Russell

For decades until now, from the time ADHD was wrongly labeled as “Minimal Brain Dysfunction”  to later on as “Hyperkinetic Disorder” to now as ADHD, this condition has been mistakenly associated with learning disabilities , a birth defect and a developmental disability. So sadly the ADHD children were unfairly grouped with other brain developmental and defective disorders, such as autism and mental retardation by experts and in the classrooms in the “special education” programs. This is while in fact, ADHD children, specially the hyperactive/impulsive subtype are not of low, but high intelligence.

Some researchers have actually considered ADHD and intelligence to be both heritable phenotypes, with overlapping genetic effects and similar anatomic overlap in the brain, and have suggested that the brain changes characteristic of ADHD may vary as a function of IQ. These researchers have documented that there are not differences in the cerebral gray matter volume and cerebral white matter microstructure that are positively associated with IQ, between high IQ controls and ADHD of hyperactive subtype subjects.  Also while the current literature that often mixes the subtypes of ADHD report impaired cognitive measures such as  working memory and executive function in ADHD, there are studies that report no difference among children with ADHD and controls at average or high IQ levels.  Therefore it seems that there are at least groups of ADHD, not just with low IQ, but average and even high IQ (>120) and gifted.

Read more in the book “ADHD:Revisited” at Amazon, Kindle Books.