Add/adhd

[Nole Chief Chad]

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Is it true that you can't serve in the military even as a doctor if you are prescribed adderall?

 

[DocArmy]

Is it true that you can't serve in the military even as a doctor if you are prescribed adderall?

It's on the list of prohibited meds for commissioning. They ask directly if you've ever been on it in your HPSP application.

Now, if you were on it when you were 12, that's one thing. You might be able to get a waiver. If you are on it through medical school, I don't know if you can get that waivered, but my suspicion is no. I have heard of people being on adderall in med school and just lying about it and not being on it when they did things with the military so that they wouldn't pop positive for it on a urine test. Obviously this plan carries significant career altering risk, so it's not really a path I would recommend to anyone.

If you're legitimately on it and you're not blowing through a bottle a week so that you can make honor roll and become an underwater-neurosurgeon, and you want to serve, there's no harm in asking and seeking information from the recruiters. If you're going to have to be on it every day for the rest of your life, they may say no. It would suck to be in Afghanistan and not get your supply shipment and be ineffective as a physician due to lack of meds. That puts everyone at risk.

 

[Nole Chief Chad]

Thanks for the reply. I see your point about possibly endangering others. In my case, I do use it legitimately and would not be be ineffective without meds. That being said, I do feel that I am more efficient while on meds and that I would prefer to stay on them. I already get prescriptions written out many months in advance because my doctor is hundreds of miles from where I go to school. I don't see how it would be any different if I were deployed. This way there wouldn't be a danger involved with accepting learning disabled individuals into the military.

Im guessing that a large portion of the military has ADHD anyway because many of the the enlisted soldiers are all the kids that never were diagnosed and their grades didn't cut it to get into college. It only makes sense that someone who couldn't focus in school would be drawn to the active life style of the military where they would be least affected by their condition. This is by no means disrespecting the military, Im just implying that the military would seem like a good fit for someone that needs adrenaline and excitement in order to focus.

I suppose I am just bitter that I am not good enough in the eyes of the govt. to serve my country.

 

[DeadCactus]

It's nothing personal on the military's part.

There's a wide-spectrum of people who benefit from the legitimate use of stimulants and the military generally just doesn't have the time or motivation to sort through everyone and figure out who would be fine if they were forced to do without them. The current policy is to put the burden of proof on the applicant (by showing you can function fine for a year without treatment) and it's hard to blame them for it when the pool of other applicants is so large.

At the same time, the latter statement is less true for the military medicine world so the waivers may be a bit more free-flowing. It's worth a shot. You could lie, but that tends to bring a lot of bad news your way if it ever catches up with you...

 

[IgD]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=7364326&postcount=25

In this post I point out a research study that there is no difference between the retention rates for service members with ADHD and without