ADHD, short for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is a common condition that has been recognized and treated by pediatricians, psychiatrists and neurologists for several decades.

It has been estimated to affect between 5 and 10 percent of all children in the United States. Children who are affected by the condition are easily distracted, have trouble listening to teachers, and tend to act out and not deal well with group situations. The standard treatments since the 1960s have been behavioral therapy and mood-altering stimulant drugs, including amphetamines (Adderall, Dexedrine) and methylphenidate (Ritalin, Concerta, Metadate, Methylin, Focalin)

Until recently, physicians and psychologists who treated ADHD believed that children grew out of the condition by the time they reached adulthood and would no longer need treatment.

Unfortunately, during the past decade, more and more teenagers have not outgrown ADHD by the time they arrive at college and continue to depend on daily medication to help them study while in college and often into graduate school and beyond. There are recent estimates that in as many as 30 to 50 percent of cases, childhood ADHD persists into adult life.

Because stimulant medications have a potential for abuse, they are considered controlled substances by the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and physicians can write prescriptions only for one month at a time, with no telephone refills allowed.

Because they are also potentially performance enhancing, their use has been banned by national and international athletics federations, including the NCAA.

However, because the NCAA recognized that college athletes must be treated primarily as students, and medication helps them to function better at school, a medical exception procedure was created, which allows NCAA student-athletes who are being treated by a physician for ADHD to continue their medication.

A student-athlete who tests positive for Adderall (amphetamine) or Ritalin (methylphenidate) may apply for a medical exception to the Drug Education and Drug Testing Subcommittee of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports.

The subcommittee will review the request, and if the medical evidence of treatment for ADHD is satisfactory, the medical exception will be granted and the student-athlete will not be sanctioned. To be considered satisfactory, there must be current documentation from the student-athlete's physician. In addition, the diagnosis must have been made and the medication prescribed before, not after, the positive drug test.

Sometimes student-athletes who are on medication for ADHD think they are being helpful to their friends and offer them a trial of their medication. Besides being illegal, the student-athlete who borrows the medication and then gets drug-tested will be suspended for 12 months and forfeit a year of eligibility if the test comes back positive. Saying "I didn't know" is not an acceptable excuse.

Arnold F. Mazur is staff physician at Boston College and a member of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports.