Some athletes, especially professional athletes, have an increased risk for becoming substance abusers, and some may become addicted to alcohol and/or drugs.

Some athletes may not be addicted to drugs, but use them for the specific purpose of enhancing their athletic performance, for example, using anabolic steroids for rapid increase in muscle mass and strength. Steroid use among athletes began sometime after the 1948 Olympic Games. Steroid users often convince themselves that these drugs are necessary in order for them to compete effectively, and they may also rationalize that other athletes also use drugs and that they therefore need them to be competitive.

Some experts say that even when professional athletes are identified as drug abusers and they admit their fault, they are still admired by others (especially adolescents and young adults) who may emulate them, including emulating their abuse of drugs.

Some high school athletes, primarily males, abuse drugs because they believe that these drugs will improve their athletic performance and increase their odds of attaining a professional sports career or an athletic scholarship to a college. In some cases, the drugs actually do enhance their athletic performance; however, the side effects of the drug abuse can be severe and even fatal.

According to Dr. Timothy J. Noakes in his 2004 article in the New England Journal of Medicine on drugs and athletic performance, athletes have misused drugs for many years. For example, in the 1950s, many athletes used amphetamines to improve their physical performance. Amphetamines minimized their fatigue and are still popular among some cyclists in competitions. Some athletes also use cortisone at abusive levels to limit their inflammation and pain. Dr. Noakes says that many professional cyclists abuse cortisone.

Some athletes abuse growth hormone, a very dangerous practice.

Another type of drug that is abused by athletes is erythropoietin, a hormone that regulates the red blood cell mass and is believed to increase athletic performance for a period of minutes to hours. Some professional cyclists have abused erythropoietin and in one case, the cyclist Marco Pantani, who won the 1998 Tour de France, was later banned from cycling after testing positive for erythropoietin.

Noakes says the extent of the use of performance-enhancing drugs by athletes is often difficult to determine:

The true extent of the use of performance-enhancing drugs is uncertain for a variety of reasons: athletes avoid detection by using scheduled testing for illicit drugs to plan their drug use; those conducting "out-of-competition" testing of athletes may intentionally avoid testing known drug users; hormones such as testosterone and insulin are initially undetectable, since they are so similar to the naturally produced substances, and designer drugs such as tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) are initially developed specifically to elude detection by all the current testing protocols; and positive tests are often not reported, and even proven drug users are generally not prosecuted.

Drug testing may identify the presence of drugs in some athletes, but many individuals have found ways to "beat the system."

Another problem that commonly occurs, especially among adolescents, is that they are skeptical of those who caution them that the abuse of these drugs is dangerous and that they should avoid them. Says Tracy Hampton in an article for the Journal of the American Medical Association, "Because most adolescents feel a sense of invincibility, convincing individuals in this age group to avoid or cease using these substances is another challenge."

References:

1)         Hampton, Tracy. "Researchers Address Use of Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Nonelite Athletes," Journal of the American Medical Association 295, no. 6 (February 8, 2006): 607-608.

2)         Noakes, Timothy D., M.D. "Tainted Glory--Doping and Athletic Performance." New England Journal of Medicine 351, no. 9 (August 26, 2004): 847-849.

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