Baseball Musings: Seeking Attention

January 09, 2009

Seeking Attention

There seems to be an epidemic of ADHD is major league baseball:

"This is incredible. This is quite spectacular. There seems to be an epidemic of ADD in major league baseball," said Dr. Gary Wadler, chairman of the committee that determines the banned-substances list for the World Anti-Doping Agency.
He recommended an independent panel be established - WADA recommends at least three doctors - to review TUE requests in what he termed "a sport that grew up on greenies."

"I've been in private practice for a lot of years. I can count on one hand the number of individuals that have ADD," he said. "To say that (7.86 percent) of major league baseball players have attention deficit disorder is crying out of an explanation. It is to me as an internist so off the map of my own experience."

Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president of labor relations, said it would be a mistake to compare ADHD in baseball with statistics for the general population.'

"We are all male. We are far younger than the general population, and we have far better access to medical care than the general population," Manfred said.

I'm not a Gary Wadler fan, as he's a first class scold, but it looks like he's right here. Manfred's statement doesn't pass the smell test, unless, for some reason, there is some link between ADHD and playing baseball.

Posted by David Pinto at 09:25 PM | Cheating | TrackBack (0)

Comments

This was a story last year. An agreement was reached that a specific doctor would review all usage and requests to avoid avuse issues.

Considering that MLB plauers play a 162 game season - and pre-season and playoffs - and have to be on hair trigger response to hit a ball in .4 seconds, steal, get a jump on a grounder or fly ball, I am sure that there are some chemical imbalances caused by the constant ready state that may need medical attention.

My guess is that players may develop bipolar tendencies from this stop/start concentration and rushes of adrenaline and action....I wouldn't be surpired if it also caused ADD like imbalances.

Wadler is fully bought and paid for member of the WADA wgh wants his buddies to get the jobs and grants to do research.

Posted by: Bob Tufts at January 9, 2009 11:19 PM

Statistically, the odds of being diagnosed with ADHD or ADD is actually higher then 8% for males. Further, while there are links between chemical imbalances and ADHD, for the most part, individuals are improperly diagnosed (according to an ongoing study being performed at UBuffalo).

Posted by: Brandon H at January 10, 2009 02:36 AM

I have ADHD.

Posted by: Ted Williams Frozen Head at January 10, 2009 10:20 AM

I'd like to see the ADHD diagnosis statistics for other sports as well.

Posted by: rbj at January 10, 2009 11:14 AM

It is a scam, legalized doping.

Posted by: dave at January 10, 2009 01:26 PM

Bob Tufts is right about Wadler. He's one of the global guys looking for any excuse to make a dollar off the US baseball fan and create another bureaucracy for himself and his pals.

Posted by: susan mullen at January 10, 2009 01:46 PM

Ugh, "legalized doping." The fact is, no matter what industry you are in, it's easy to get diagnosed with ADHD, and even easier to convince yourself that you have it, especially when you get prescribed Adderall and it makes you more productive. It doesn't surprise me that baseball players think they can play better when they're prescribed drugs like these. I've read that 20% of scientists admit to using the same types of brain-enhancing drugs. Are we going to subpoena their shrinks to make sure they're all legitimately have ADD?

Bud Selig should have better things to do than act like a nanny for this kind of nonsense. It's not like these are things that let players grow 20% more muscle mass.

Posted by: gurk at January 10, 2009 06:22 PM

Yeah, the mean prevalence in epi studies of ADD in males runs about 9%. You might criticize the medical community for over-diagnosis, but the MLB rates are in no way out of line with the overall community, given its population.

Posted by: gotowarmissagnes at January 10, 2009 06:53 PM

And these academics are urging the unlimited use of ritalin et al as a normal way to imporve cognitive function..and perhaps feed them to people at work to boost production

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article5428560.ece

Shades of the LSD and cocaine laced 60's and 70's to expand one's mind!

Posted by: Bob Tufts at January 10, 2009 07:21 PM

Thank you for your post. I also just recently found out about this autism program, never knew that such was available. Did you ever hear about such programs before? Anyhows, keep up your blog posts, look forward to reading them.

Posted by: konnie.teo at January 12, 2009 04:39 AM