To him, the diagnosis explained the sense of disorganization that caused him to lose track of projects and kept him from completing even minor personal chores like reading his mail. But to others, it seems like one more excuse.

"I had always thought of myself as someone who didn't finish things. Knowing why is such a relief."

As the number of Americans with brain disorders grows, so has skepticism toward the grab bag of syndromes they are being tagged with, from ADD to Asperger's to bipolar I, II or III.

"For a while it is going to be a rather relentless process as there are more and more discoveries of people that have something that could be called a defect and yet have immense talents in one way or another."