Former Sen. George Mitchell released the results of his investigation into steroid use in major league baseball – revealing the names of some high-profile athletes he alleges have used steroids. The highly anticipated report puts anabolic steroids in the headlines again. Be prepared to report on the health aspects of steroids with these resources.
Related news stories
The BALCO Investigation, from the San Francisco Chronicle
Some of the drugs involved in the BALCO case, San Francisco Chronicle
Benoit killings put spotlight on steroids, The Associated Press
Study finds steroids, illegal stimulants in supplements, USA Today
University of Michigan survey says steroid use down among youth, The Detroit News
Doping has long-term health consequences, NPR
Experts
Fighting Drugs in Sports, Charles E. Yesalis and Michael S. Bahrke, two experts on drug use in sports and exercise.
Dr. Linn Goldberg, sports medicine specialist at Oregon Health & Science University, with research interest in drug prevention among athletes.
Androgen Clinical Research Unit at Boston University Medical Center
Dr. Gary Wadler, an internist with expertise in drug use in sports, has testified before Congress. He is the lead author of the textbook "Drugs and the Athlete."
Dr. Christianne Ayotte runs the Doping Control Laboratory at Institut National de la Recherché Scientifique in Montreal.
Dr. Don Catlin runs Anti-Doping Research. Catlin was founder and director of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory. Read more about him.
Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Center at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate
For a different view of the effects of anabolic steroids, read "Pumped-Up Hysteria: Forget the hype. Steroids aren't wrecking professional baseball," by Dayn Perry published in January 2003 in Reason Magazine.
Journals
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology
The Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition is a peer-reviewed journal that covers sports nutrition, supplementation, exercise metabolism, and scientific policies related to sports nutrition. JISSN has several articles related to steroid use, including "demographics, motivations and patterns of use of 1,955 male adult non-medical anabolic steroid users in the United States."
Steroids, published by Elsevier
The American Journal of Sports Medicine
Children
In Texas, the University Interscholastic League has proposed guidelines for testing the state's high school athletes, a program that will be considered the largest steroid testing program in the world. The UIL's drug manual, with information about drugs and nutritional supplements, is online.
CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, 2005 – shows a decrease from 2003 to 2005 in the percentage of students who said they took steroid pills or shots without a doctor's prescription one or more times.
ATLAS (Athletes Training & Learning to Avoid Steroids) is a drug prevention program designed for high school male athletes using a hands-on-approach with interactive activities.
Government sources
National Institute on Drug Abuse
Health hazards of anabolic steroids, from the National Institute on Drug Abuse
DrugStory.org, from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy
Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids: Incidence of Use and Health Implications, from the President's Council on Physical Fitness Research Digest, March 2005 (PDF)
Publications about steroids from the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration
Other organizations
In a study overseen by Informed-Choice, a nonprofit coalition of dietary supplements, 58 supplement samples were purchased from retail outlets and Internet sites in the United States and analyzed for substances prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency. About one quarter of the samples showed the presence of low levels of steroid and/or stimulant contamination that were not declared on the label.
Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning – Site of Victor Conte, the man at the heart of the BALCO investigation.
American College of Sports Medicine
A sampling from PubMed:
Sports medicine: performance-enhancing drugs; Pediatric clinics of North America (2007 Aug;54(4):797-806, xii, Gregory AJ, Fitch RW) – Summarizes current information regarding the use of performance-enhancing drugs in young athletes and proven prevention strategies for instituting a program in schools.
Drug use in sports: a veritable arena for pharmacists; Journal of the American Pharmacists Association (2004 Jul-Aug;44(4):501-14; quiz 514-6, Ambrose PJ) – Opportunities and obligations for pharmacists regarding doping control in sports and information and resources on drugs and dietary supplements that are popular among athletes for performance enhancement.
Cardiovascular toxicities of performance-enhancing substances in sports; Mayo Clinic Proceedings (2005 Oct;80(10):1307-15; Dhar R, Stout CW, Link MS, Homoud MK, Weinstock J, Estes NA 3rd)
Psychiatric effects and psychoactive substance use in anabolic-androgenic steroid users; Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine (1995;5(1):25-31; Malone DA Jr, Dimeff RJ, Lombardo JA, Sample RH)
More medical journal articles about the effects of anabolic steroids
If you know of additional resources that should be included on this page, please send them to pia@healthjournalism.org.
