After finishing this chapter, students should be able to understand:
Performance-enhancing drugs have been used by athletes throughout history.
Athletic use of stimulants appears to have increased and spread to most sports with the use of amphetamines during the 1950s and 1960s.
Amphetamines and caffeine have both been shown to increase work output and to mask the effects of fatigue.
Some athletes continue to use stimulants for training, despite the dangers of injury and overexertion.
Anabolic steroids are capable of increasing muscle mass and probably strength, although it has been difficult to separate the psychological stimulant-like effect of these drugs from the physical effects on the muscles themselves.
Anabolic steroids can also produce a variety of dangerous and sometimes irreversible side effects.
It is difficult to do ethical and well-controlled research on the effects of steroids.
Misuse of human growth hormone and related substances might be the next problem to arise.
Creatine is a legally available nutritional supplement that can increase strength but might slow distance runners because of resultant weight gain.
