From the Associated Press, New York Times, USA Today and elsewhere:

A congressional committee investigating doping in baseball was told yesterday that ADD and ADHD have increased sharply among major league players — whose diagnoses make them eligible to use otherwise banned amphetamines.

The number of major leaguers claiming therapeutic use exemptions for adult ADD has mushroomed to 103 this past season from 28 in 2006, the year that the stimulants were banned.

Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.) charged that players are using ADD claims to evade the amphetamine ban and use use stimulants like Ritalin and Adderal. He said the players are using these drugs at a rate that is eight times that of the general population.

“This demands an explanation. There’s something fundamentally wrong them going from 28 to 103,” said Dr. Gary Wadler, chairman of the committee that determines the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned-substances list. “If we had this percentage increase in the general population, it would be on the evening news as a national epidemic. It’s an outrageous number.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 11:34 am and is filed under ADHD, attention deficit disorder, drugs, exercise/sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.