TOXICOLOGICAL ENDPOINTS OF DOPING SUBSTANCES

TOXICOLOGICAL ENDPOINTS OF DOPING SUBSTANCES

Athletes and non athletes weighlifters have tried to gain an unfair advantage through the use doping substances since ancient times. Doping substances although enhance sports performance, represent a risk to the health of individuals and violate the sprit of competition. The use of prohibited performance enhancing drugs (PED’s) or methods to improve results in competitive sports is referred as doping. Among the PED’s used are androgenic-anabolic steroids (AASs), diuretics and masking agents, narkotics and cannabinoids. The improper handling of endogenous hormones such as human growth hormone, erythropoietin, testosterone and insülin and also the use of forbidden methods such as blood transfusions or gene doping and even the refusal to take a drug test or attempt to tamper with doping controls are all considered as doping. Every year a new list of banned drugs is prepared by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Abusers of doping substances have higher mortality rates and risk of sudden death. Many adverse effect of AASs abuse such as increased body hair, acne, aggresive behaviour, mood disturbances, alteration of cardiovascular parameters, disturbances in endocrine and immune functions have been reported. Doping agents generaly exert tendinopathies, rhabdomyolysis, arthralgies, abnormal bone growth, osteoporosis, joint cartilage erosion and osteoarthritis, soft tissue edema, fatique and tremor. . In the presantation the target organs that are affected by the use of doping substances will be discussed in detail.  

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  • A. Ahmet BASARAN Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Hacettepe University, 06100, Ankara, Turkey