DAMP (deficits in attention, motor control, and perception) is a psychiatric concept conceived by Christopher Gillberg defined by the presence of five properties: problems of attention, gross and fine motor skills, perceptual deficits, and speech-language impairments.
Minor cases of DAMP are roughly defined as a combination of developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and a pervading attention deficit.
DAMP is similar to minimal brain dysfunction (MBD), a concept that was formulated in the 1960s,[2] and which has since been recognised as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The concept of MBD was strongly criticized by Sir Michael Rutter [Gillberg, 2003, p. 904] and several other researchers, and this led to its abandonment in the 1980s.
[2] 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.
[3][7][8] In particular, it has been observed that "the validity and utility of DAMP will remain unclear until stronger evidence of the special status of the overlap between its constituent disorders is provided".
[3] In 2005, there was an hour-long television program broadcast on Swedish TV, questioning why Sweden, almost alone in the world, would accept the DAMP construct.