The US military is for the first time in history accepting hundreds of recruits with a history of behavioral challenges, including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Seven hundred recruits with various conditions were allowed to join up without a waiver, according to an announcement by the Defense Department reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Recruits with a history of 38 different medical conditions – including just two neurodevelopmental disorders — were allowed to serve as long as they had had no symptoms, and required no medical for the past three to seven years.
Those with ADHD were allowed to serve without a waiver if they had no symptoms and/or were not treated with medication for the condition over the past three years.
Those who were diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder but were symptom-free for the past seven years were also allowed to serve without a waiver.
The Pentagon said it will assess the new program in six months to determine its effectiveness.
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurobiological condition that affects between seven to ten percent of the school-age population in the United States.
According to an August 2021 study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, ADHD persists into adulthood in approximately 50 percent of cases – but just 10 percent of ADHD children completely outgrow the disorder.
Medication and therapy are the two main treatments for ADHD, but healthy coping skills can be effective as well.
ADHD, once thought of as a “trash can diagnosis” has a physical basis, with structural and neurochemical differences in the brain that can be seen in a wealth of functional MRI studies, according to the ADHD International website.
Oppositional defiant disorder, the most common condition found together with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, is found in up to 60 percent of individuals with ADHD.
