Drug use update.

Abstract

Drug abuse by athletes is a problem not restricted to the elite athlete. Regardless of one's specialty, physicians caring for any athlete or anyone engaged in sport activities must consider drug abuse as an integral part of their patient assessment. To diagnose drug abuse, one must think about drug abuse. The issues are complex. Admittedly it is a sad societal commentary that the physician must entertain the possibility of EPO abuse when evaluating an endurance athlete with a higher than average hematocrit, or think about clenbuterol abuse when a body-builder presents with palpitations, or think of anabolic androgenic steroid abuse when a teenager exhibits an unusual degree of acne. Drug abuse in sports, however, has been and continues to be a reality. The goal of this article was to raise the level of consciousness about the possibility of drug abuse when evaluating and treating athletes regardless of their skill level or record of achievement. History has made it abundantly clear that although drug abuse is not new to sports, the specific drugs of abuse are continuously changing. The physician must be ever mindful.