Anabolic- Androgenic Steroids: The antidoping perspective

Since ancient times, unethical athletes have attempted to gain an unfair competitive advantage through the use of doping substances. Doping with endocrine drugs is quite prevalent in amateur and professional athletes. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has a list of banned drugs for athletes who compete and a strategy to detect such drugs. A substance or method might be included in the List if it fulflls at least two of the following criteria: enhances sports performance; represents a risk to the athlete's health; or violates the spirit of sports. This list, constantly updated to refect new developments in the pharmaceutical industry as well as doping trends, enumerates the drug types and methods prohibited in and out of competition. From all these, Anabolic- Androgenic steroids (AAS) constitute by far the highest number of adverse analytical fndings reported by antidoping laboratories. The use of diferent derivatives of AAS is growing among adolescent athletes through out the world. In India the detection of these substances is quite intricate due to the cost of testing and non availability of many accredited labs. This article will overview the use of AAS as doping substances in sports, focusing mainly on the diferent depravities AAS available in Indian market, schedules of AAS administration, possible side efects of AAS, physical symptoms of AAS in user and counseling strategies to the current fght against doping.