A typical college semester in Louisiana can include Mardi Gras parades, music festivals and hurricane evacuations. But University students are blaming their inability to focus on school on a less-expected distraction — Attention Deficit Disorder.When asked about factors affecting their academic performance, 12.7 percent of 715 University students surveyed attributed ADD to their inability to study, according to a 2008 study by the American College Health Association. University students claimed ADD is more of a studying impediment than alcohol, which only affected 9.1 percent of the University’s survey takers.The significant discrepancy between the University survey’s ADD percentage and the national average, 7 percent, has many people wondering if students are merely more aware of the increasingly notorious disorder or if University students are really more affected by ADD than the average university.Wellness Education Coordinator Kathryn Saichuk said despite the rising number of University students blaming ADD for their lack of concentration and overall stress, the University is not experiencing an ADD epidemic.”We don’t have any evidence that there is one single contributing factor … Louisiana has over other states that might be a causative agent for ADD,” Saichuk said. “And although there is still no absolute [cause] for ADD … research and data are showing that it may be genetic.”The high percentage of University students claiming to have the disorder could be a product of the stress that comes from constant competitiveness, Saichuk said.”A greater number of students are … feeling the stress of excelling academically and multitasking,” Saichuk said. “[Students] may believe that this inability to deal with stress is … ADD and [ADD] drugs could help them perform better. However, I think there [are] a lot of myths … about what these drugs do or don’t do. People aren’t educated enough about [ADD].”Sydney Scofield, communication disorders senior, agrees with Saichuk’s analysis. “I’ve [been diagnosed] with ADD,” Scofield said. “But I have a lot of friends who think they have [ADD] just because they have a lot to do, procrastinate and then try to cram everything in at once. Then they blame [the fact] that they can’t concentrate on ADD, when it’s really that they … can’t handle the stress.”Other students, including biological sciences freshman Sree Yalamanchili and international studies freshman Marta Delgado, believe many students are aware their inattention is not ADD, but blame the disorder in attempt to get the “concentration medication.””It’s an excuse,” Yalamanchili said. “I know upper-level students that, because of stress, get prescribed [Adderall] by family doctors. Also, I think people … diagnose themselves all the time. Not being able to sit still doesn’t mean they have ADD.”Because Student Health Center information about the number of prescriptions of Adderall, the most common ADD drug, is confidential, it is uncertain whether or not the students claiming to have ADD are, in fact, being medicated for the disorder.To be prescribed Adderall, students must go through “extensive” testing, Saichuk said. Students who are claiming to have ADD but don’t should find it difficult to obtain the medication. However, there is always room for error.”There’s always a chance … someone could be misdiagnosed,” Saichuk said. “But we [also] have a lot of students that may come to college already prescribed the medication … and over time, simply outgrow their symptoms. They may have had [ADD] and … with the physiological maturity of the body and the brain … may eventually not need, but [stay on], the medication.”However, like many other students, Delgado attributes the University’s high percentage to the growing trend. Many of her friends take Adderall, though many don’t need it. “I guess having ADD is the cool thing to do now,” Delgado said.–Contact Natalie Roy at [email protected]