Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Healthy Athletes: An Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses

types of performance-enhancing drugs

It is a non-essential nutrient that helps in the production of ATP or energy. According to a study performed on adolescents studying in grade levels 6th to 12th, it was noted that 75 % of them used these drugs with an intention to have an improved sports performance. It has also been shown to enhance performance in exercises involving high intensity.

What are the Benefits of Staying Drug-Free?

Composed of short chains of amino acids, peptides are signaling molecules that regulate various processes from metabolism to tissue growth. Synthetic versions claim to crank up fat burning, enhance sleep quality, or accelerate recovery. Distinguishing between an athlete with naturally high testosterone concentrations and an athlete using testosterone or testosterone precursor supplements is difficult. There have been technological advancements that have dramatically improved the measurement of AAS, but there remain challenges, particularly as ped drug the development of novel, designer AAS advances rapidly. Included papers and extracted data were synthesized into Appendix 2 (available online).

Baseline Testing

  • Increased healing rate – Studies state that there is a well-recognized interrelationship between hormones, nutrition, and wound healing rate.
  • Their effects are quite varied, and some only benefit certain athletes playing certain sports.
  • It is worth noting that these side effects did not seem to significantly impair their performance (or the ergogenic effect outweighed the impact of the adverse effect), as two of these participants still produced a faster time in the tramadol condition.
  • After puberty, inflated levels of HGH can cause acromegaly, a disease characterised by excessive growth of the head, feet and hands.
  • Performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) are the substances or agents that enhance any form of activity in the body.

In addition to propranolol, beta blockers include atenolol, acebutolol, alprenolol, bisoprolol and metoprolol, all of which are banned in pistol shooting and archery. Because of the risks it posed, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) banned GHB in 2000 but then brought it back to the market two years later after it was found to be useful in treating narcolepsy. Its use has since expanded to include drug addiction another rare sleeping disorder, but GHB is only prescribed under strict safety controls. You may think first of amphetamines — prescription-only “speed” pills — when you hear of this class of drugs, but not all stimulants require a physician’s signature. The kidneys make the hormone naturally, although people with severe kidney disease don’t produce enough.

types of performance-enhancing drugs

Positive and Negative Affect Schedule

types of performance-enhancing drugs

In 2007, anti-doping agencies introduced the concept of a “biological passport,” a record of the substances found normally in an athlete’s blood and urine, created by repeated sampling over time. By the 1990s, though, cyclists and other endurance athletes discovered that they could train longer and harder if they took the drug regularly. Studies have shown that it increases the risk of events such as stroke, heart attack and pulmonary edema. Blood doping — removing and preserving a supply of blood so it can be returned, via transfusion, to the body right before competition — is one way to do this. Taking erythropoietin, or EPO, increases red blood cell production without the need for transfusions.

  • This diminishes the integrity of sports, where success should be based on natural talent, hard work, and dedication.
  • The initial ABPs contained a standardised approach to the profiling of an athlete’s haematological variables (blood module) for the detection of blood doping.
  • The use of PEDs by professional athletes can have a detrimental impact on young athletes and society.
  • This is difficult because the development of new ‘designer’ steroids is an on-going process.

Performance-enhancing substances (PESs) have unfortunately become ubiquitous in numerous sports, often tarnishing the spirit of competition. Reported rates of PES use among athletes are variable and range from 5 to 31%. More importantly, some of these substances pose a serious threat to the health and well-being of athletes. Common PESs include anabolic-androgenic steroids, human growth hormone, creatine, erythropoietin and blood doping, amphetamines and stimulants, and beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate. With recent advances in technology, gene doping is also becoming more conceivable.

types of performance-enhancing drugs

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