TOWER GROVE — An outcome of the Mitchell Report, which was published a year ago during the offseason, was that Major League Baseball and the players’ union agreed to release publicly a review of the drug-testing program. The audit does not include names, just facts and figures, but it offers a snapshot of how a sport once described as “infested” with performance-enhancing drugs is addressing the issue.

The report, issued by the Independent Program Administrator Dr. Bryan W. Smith and emailed to baseball writers around the country, was released this afternoon by the MLBPA, and it contains a breakdown of the past year in testing. All of the numbers are based on the 40-man roster for teams.

Quoting from the report:

• 3,486 tests were performed from the beginning of the 2007-2008 offseason to the conclusion of the 2008 playoffs.
• 19 of the tests were positive for a banned substance.
• Five of those 19 were for a performance-enhancing substance, including two for Androstenedione, the substance we all know as Andro and grabbed headlines as far back as 1998. J.C. Romero and Sergio Mitre were just penalized for positive tests that showed Andro.
• 14 of the 19 tests were positive for stimulants.
• A total of 114 exemptions were granted for “therapeutic use”.
• Of those 114, 106 were for Attention Deficit Disorder (or ADHD).
• One was for post-concussion syndrome.

The report, as a whole, isn’t earth-shattering. But the line there about ADD (or ADHD) as a diagnosis is worth noting. Of the 14 tests that showed the use of a stimulant, eight identified Adderall as that stimulant. A year ago 103 exemptions were issued for ADD, according to the information submitted to Congress. Only a few hours old and this fact has already drawn criticism, as detailed in the report from The Associated Press. To AP baseball writer Ronald Blum, World Anti-Doping Agency official Dr. Gary Wadler said:

“This is incredible. This is quite spectacular. There seems to be an epidemic of ADD in major league baseball. … I’ve been in private practice for a lot of years. I can count on one hand the number of individuals that have ADD. To say that close to 10 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.”

A Major League Baseball official told the AP that the percentage could reasonably be different for professional athletes and that there is “better access” to medical care for pro baseball players. But this is not the first time the ADD diagnosis has been alleged to be a shield or a loophole in the testing. Newsweek opened last spring training with an enlightening article that explored the ADD question. It is provocatively headlined “Baseball’s Ritalin Addiction”.

The AP story linked above has more reaction to and details about the report.

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