Neurogenetic determinism and the new euphenics

Summary points Genes have been identified for several neurodegenerative diseases, but so far this has not led to effective treatment The tendency to view the complexities of human behaviour as genetically determined has important consequences One is the construction of new diseases-for example, disruptive children are diagnosed as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and are prescribed methyphenidate hydrochloride Another is that social problems such as violence and alcoholism can be regarded as neurogenetically determined; solutions are then seen as lying in molecular research rather than in reshaping society Genes for all reasons But when we move beyond the terrain of relative diagnostic certainty represented by such traditional neurological disorders, things become much murkier. Methylphenidate hydrochloride is supposed to treat a condition known as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, characterised by a child being naughty at home and a poor learner and disruptive at school.