Baseball's Ritalin Addiction

As Major League Baseball begins to dig out from its steroids scandal, new kinds of performance-enhancing substances are sweeping big-league clubhouses: Ritalin, Adderall and other drugs designed to help with Attention-Deficit Disorder. According to records MLB officials turned over to congressional investigators as part of George Mitchell's probe into steroid use in baseball, the number of players getting "therapeutic use exemptions" from baseball's amphetamines ban jumped in one year from 28 to 103—which means that, suddenly, 7.6 percent of the 1,354 players on major-league rosters had been diagnosed with ADD.

One possible reason for this increase: in 2005 baseball banned the use of "greenies," amphetamines that help players remained focused and energetic through the rigors of a 162-game season. Amphetamines were once as common as deli spreads in big-league clubhouses—in some, greenies were used to spike the coffee. Players are now seeking doctors' prescriptions for ADD medications, usually Ritalin and Adderall, apparently to replace the now-illegal energy boosting drugs. (Ritalin is the trade name for the drug methylphenidate, and Adderall is an  amphetamine-dextroamphetamine; they are both considered stimulants.)

Certainly, some of the players getting prescriptions for ADD medications may have a legitimate medical need, says David Goodman, a Johns Hopkins University doctor who has been invited to help Major League baseball develop a new strategy for amphetamines. But he calls the ADD drug spike "troubling," since it inevitably raises suspicion that players have simply found a way to evade the amphetamine ban. No cases of abuse have been reported. Determining which cases might be bogus would require a thorough study of both the prescribing doctors and the thoroughness of their examination process. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig says the league is investigating the ADD diagnoses to determine which ones are legitimate medical problems and which ones might be attempts to evade the amphetamines ban.