Methods
JFK was depicted as a lively man, full of energy; he forced himself to act this way. In reality, he suffered from poor health; the details of his ailments remained a secret until 2001 (at the request of the Kennedy family) when the medical archives of the Kennedy library were opened for public scrutiny.
Kennedy’s biographer Robert Dallek chose Dr. Jeffrey Kelman, a specialist in internal medicine and physiology, to accompany him, along with Dr. Bert E Park, a neurosurgeon and the author of The Impact of Illness on World Leaders,11 to examine all records from 1955 through 1963, reading medical reports and several documents. With the help of these records and documents, he reconstructed JFK’s clinical history in his biographies.3,12 Dallek’s biography of JFK has therefore been cited in several medical studies recently.2,13,14
James MacGregor Burns was a Democratic nominee in Massachusetts’s first congressional district who published a biography of JFK in 1959 to determine whether JFK had the qualifications of a president.15 Burns’ biography of JFK was written while JFK was alive and became the presidential candidate, under the condition that Burns would have complete and unrestricted access to his official and personal files, with JFK’s consent and assistance from his office and aides. Burns interviewed JFK’s wife, parents, family members, teachers, assistants, political supporters, political opponents, and many others. Burns had full access to his files of correspondence, legislative records, family records, and such from the past, as the bibliographical notes explain in greater detail. Burns’ biography is based largely on these data and has the most detailed records of JFK’s developmental and behavioral characteristics; therefore, it has been cited as an important source of developmental and medical research in the past.16,17
According to the diagnostic criteria outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5),18,19 a diagnosis of adult ADHD is made by at least five of nine symptoms of inattention and/or at least five of nine symptoms of hyperactivity/impulsivity in a person older than 17 years of age. Through our review,3,15 we identified episodes in JFK’s life that are suggestive of the specific symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsiveness based on his biographies by Dallek and Burns, which appears to be appropriate for this study.