By Piper Rutherford | Staff Writer
October is National ADHD Awareness Month, which, according to the Center for Disease Control, celebrates roughly 10% of the U.S. youth population who are diagnosed with ADHD.
This figure includes the roughly 101-129 Baylor students each year who are uniquely treated by the Health Services Department on campus to provide them with the tools necessary to pay better attention in class, control impulsive behaviors and manage their overly active minds, making the process of pursuing a degree in higher education less challenging, according to Medical Director for Baylor University and local family practitioner, Dr. Sharon Stern.
Stern said the Health Services Department on campus provides students with primary care physicians who administer treatment for patients.
Stern said this treatment includes neuropsychic testing to either make or confirm an ADHD diagnosis, collecting a urine and drug sample prior to treatment, prescribing regulated and nonregulated drugs, and then monitoring each patient during a monthly visit, where physicians on staff record the weight and blood pressure of the patient.
“Our staff is top-notch. We were accredited by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care in 2008, which only three universities in Texas have,” Stern said. “This means that we have a higher level of quality in the clinic, since most offices do not get accredited.”
However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Stern said the Health Services Department was not able to offer its services to students with ADHD while they were learning from home.
“On top of the fact that our students had to learn remotely, this was especially hard for those with ADHD, since it is already mundane for them to learn in a lecture hall full of 200 classmates, much less when they are sitting behind a computer, instead of being actively engaged in a collaborative learning environment,” Stern said.
More recently, Stern said the ADHD drug medication shortage, beginning in 2022, including Adderall and Vyvanse, was particularly difficult to manage and still continues today.
“Last year, at this time, patients had to call around to different pharmacies to see who had medication available, such as Adderall,” Stern said. “The problem, however, is that insurance companies are now refusing to pay for brand names, which is something they did during the pandemic, making it harder for patients to find generic brands.”
From the perspective of Baylor professor of psychology and neuroscience, Dr. Hugh Riley, he said he uniquely understands the plight of students with ADHD after growing up with undiagnosed hyperactivity disorder.
“My teachers often scolded me because I had more academic potential than I was presenting, which was because I could not sit still and I ran everywhere I went, and not because I needed to get there quickly,” Riley said. “It’s not all bad, … once I graduated college, I was able to become a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force, and I am not sure that outcome would have happened if my ADHD had been treated, which might have sent me to get my master’s degree at an earlier age rather than being a risk-taker and an adventure junkie.”
Now in the role of a professor, Riley said he understands the students who come to him with the Office of Access and Learning Accommodations.
“Many students are apologetic in their emails at the beginning of the semester when explaining to me the situation of their learning accommodations,” Riley said. “However, there is nothing to be shameful about, since we all have shortcomings in a number of areas, and they deserve to be provided with a level playing field during their academic career, which is something that the OALA Center provides.”
While, from the perspective of a parent of two daughters with ADHD, Stern said that they are the most creative and wonderful people she knows, in which she said that she often compares those with ADHD to hunter and gatherers in the ancient world, who had to be alert in their environment and able to adapt at the drop of a dime.
Similarly, Riley said that while medications for ADHD do improve academic importance, in a society where academic performance is highly correlated with professional success and self-esteem, he chooses to see the strengths of those with ADHD.
“Individuals with ADHD are the Lewis and Clark of yesterday,” Riley said. “Way back in the 1700s, when Lewis and Clark explored America, they probably would not have done so if they did not have ADHD in their life, which would have changed history entirely.”
