Dr Gabriel Wahl is a psychiatrist, a paedopsychiatrist and a former expert court witness. He is President of the Association de Recherché Pluridiscipinaire sur l’Echec scolaire (ARPE), author (with Claude Madelin-Mitjaville) of Comprendre et prévenir les échecs scolaires (Understanding and Preventing Failure at School) and of several works on precocious and hyperactive children.

There are hyperactive adults, too.
Hyperactivity represents a very real form of distress which can trap a childhood, an adolescence and disturb a whole life. It can damage school careers, but at adult age is no less serious, notably in professional life. Hyperactivity can also have serious consequences on personal life and relationships.

What are the symptoms at adult age? How to distinguish between brimming enthusiasm and typical characteristics of hyperactivity? What are the personality types affected? What tests are used to diagnose hyperactivity? Does hyperactivity bring any advantages? What are its factors and origins? Is a particular gene the cause? How is it treated?

Sometimes dismissed as a spurious condition, hyperactivity can represent an authentic medical syndrome. Personal accounts, portraits and tests show the importance, at any age, of diagnosis and treatment.