ADD in MLB Players

[inkfreq]

So, MLB issued 113 medical use exemptions in 2015. Of those 111 were for ADD medication like Adderall.

According to the top research, about 4% of adults suffer from ADD/ADHD.

http://www.adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/related-illnesses/other-related-conditions/adult-adhd


Now, I don't have an exact count of the number of players on each roster, but I can say for certain there are 750 players on a major league roster. Accounting for a 33% injury rate, with each injury resulting in a new player being called up, there would a total of 1,000 players shuffling in and out of the major each year.

That number is skewed by two factors. First, often the same guy gets called up multiple times. Second, some times one injury can bring up multiple guys as one guy gets sent back down and another brought up for the same roster spot.

So 1,000 guys is not a perfect number, but I think it's a decent guesstimate.

And if it's a good guesstimate, it would mean just over 11% of Major Leaguers suffer from ADD/ADHD, roughly, but not quite, 3 times the norm for adults in America.

Since Adderall and Ritalin have the added side effect of being a performance enhancer, anyone else find it strange that athletes in all sports, baseball in particular, seem to have ADD?

 

[Mitchrapp]

Not only athletes taking medicine for shit they don't have, but regular people as well. Don't get me started with kids, that's where it all starts. They get a little excited, parents call doctor - Bam ADD. It's all a sham. Some people have ADD, legitimately. But a large portion doesn't.

 

[kalinecountry]

iirc, last year or 2014 Chris Davis of the Orioles was given a 50 game ban? for the use of adderall for his ADD. Thing is he had an exemption to use it, but didn't put in for the exemption for the year he was found to have it in his urine sample or blood work.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-b...exemption-following-suspension-040505429.html
I wasn't sure of my memory serving me correctly so I googled the story about him.

 

[kalinecountry]

Not only athletes taking medicine for shit they don't have, but regular people as well. Don't get me started with kids, that's where it all starts. They get a little excited, parents call doctor - Bam ADD. It's all a sham. Some people have ADD, legitimately. But a large portion doesn't.

I know some people don't believe this but I do. There are so many food additives and chemicals in the foods we eat, that it is said that causes some of the ADD in little children.
Also, this country has gone hog wild crazy with vaccinations for any and everything. Parents are arrested or fined, had their kids taken away for refusing to allow the state to administer the shots for them. Many of these vaccinations have mercury, thermosil-spelling, and other chemicals not needed which can cause kids to get messed up physically and mentally.

 

[inkfreq]

I know some people don't believe this but I do. There are so many food additives and chemicals in the foods we eat, that it is said that causes some of the ADD in little children.
Also, this country has gone hog wild crazy with vaccinations for any and everything. Parents are arrested or fined, had their kids taken away for refusing to allow the state to administer the shots for them. Many of these vaccinations have mercury, thermosil-spelling, and other chemicals not needed which can cause kids to get messed up physically and mentally.

I can buy into both sides of it. I could see KCs point as to all the crap we're eating, drinking, shooting into our bodies, etc..

I could also believe it's doctors too lazy to run through a real diagnosis.

What I can't believe at all is that athletes who monitor themselves well, suddenly have 3x the rate of ADD/ADHD as other adults.

 

[kalinecountry]

I can buy into both sides of it. I could see KCs point as to all the crap we're eating, drinking, shooting into our bodies, etc..

I could also believe it's doctors too lazy to run through a real diagnosis.

What I can't believe at all is that athletes who monitor themselves well, suddenly have 3x the rate of ADD/ADHD as other adults.

Very high rate for the players. Things that make you go Hmmm.

 

[Rebbiv]

PMS occurs in 20-30% of menstruating women, but 80% report having had PMS. Same thing. There are varying degrees of PMS. So too are there varying degrees of ADD and ADHD. Some can be treated with lifestyle or diet changes (and some aren't). Even the one's prescribed drugs, might be over or under prescribed.

I would be more curios to see the diagnosis of a player and that what dosage they have. If they were on a very small dosage, and it fits their diagnosis, I have no problem.

I am of the opinion that players tell other players how to "get by". So I get diagnosed as ADHD and get an exception and my career takes off and I get payed handsomely. I tell you how to convince a doctor that you have ADHD.

Also, if a player is on the 40-man roster, they have to submit for an exception, even if they play the entire year in the minors. That comes to 1,200 players. So the 111 represents 9.25%.


Also, 28% of MLB players were born outside the United States. Most having culturally acceptable diets, many from Central America/South America and didn't eat the processes foods most Americans do, or got the same vaccines. It would then be interesting to see what the ethnic make up of the ADHD MLB players. The data is there, it is just whether anyone cares enough to explore it.

 

[dale675]

It's even worse with testosterone replacement therapy in mma. Here are some snippets from the article:

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_...osterone-mma-outpace-other-sports-lines-finds


fewer than 1,800 MMA combatants are under contract to the sport's dominant promoters -- Zuffa (UFC) and Bellator, which account for 11 of the fighters on TRT. Although only a small fraction, the number of exemptions still dwarfs what can be found in other sports:

" The International Olympic Committee did not issue a single testosterone exemption for the 2012 London Olympics, which featured 5,892 male athletes.

" The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency issued one testosterone exemption last year among the thousands of elite-level athletes under its jurisdiction.

" Major League Baseball has issued six exemptions to athletes over the past six seasons -- an average of 1,200 players populate its rosters each season.

" National Football League officials say testosterone exemptions are "very rare" and only a "handful" have been issued since 1990. Nearly 2,000 players circulate through rosters each season.

" No pro boxer is known to have had an exemption issued through a state athletic commission, and Nevada officials said they have never even received an application.

 

[sggatecl]

It's even worse with testosterone replacement therapy in mma. Here are some snippets from the article:

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_...osterone-mma-outpace-other-sports-lines-finds


fewer than 1,800 MMA combatants are under contract to the sport's dominant promoters -- Zuffa (UFC) and Bellator, which account for 11 of the fighters on TRT. Although only a small fraction, the number of exemptions still dwarfs what can be found in other sports:

" The International Olympic Committee did not issue a single testosterone exemption for the 2012 London Olympics, which featured 5,892 male athletes.

" The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency issued one testosterone exemption last year among the thousands of elite-level athletes under its jurisdiction.

" Major League Baseball has issued six exemptions to athletes over the past six seasons -- an average of 1,200 players populate its rosters each season.

" National Football League officials say testosterone exemptions are "very rare" and only a "handful" have been issued since 1990. Nearly 2,000 players circulate through rosters each season.

" No pro boxer is known to have had an exemption issued through a state athletic commission, and Nevada officials said they have never even received an application.

Not to get totally off topic but TRT is now banned in the UFC and Bellator. That article is almost 2 years old.

 

[dale675]

Not to get totally off topic but TRT is now banned in the UFC and Bellator. That article is almost 2 years old.

True, and didn't mean to get off topic. Was more saying in the lines of the % of athletes approved to use something that not everyone else can.