Thorax 1999;54:1041-1046
( November )
Occasional review
Athletes and doping: effects of drugs on the respiratory system
P N R Dekhuijzen, H A Machiels, L M A Heunks, H F M van der Heijden, R H H van Balkom
Department
of Pulmonary Diseases, Academic Hospital Nijmegen, P O Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Correspondence to: Dr P N R Dekhuijzen.
Received 10 June 1999;
Accepted for publication 12 July 1999
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Introduction |
Doping is an area of ongoing public, legal, and medical debate
and in recent years it has been reported to be connected with many
sports including athletics, cycling, body building, soccer, and
swimming. Ethical issues related to doping include the honesty of the
sports competition and the safety of drugs and other methods applied to
improve the physical performance. These issues are of increasing
interest and importance since drugs on the prohibited list are easily
accessible by medically uncontrolled means such as the Internet.
According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC)1
doping consists of (1) the administration of substances belonging to
prohibited classes of pharmacological agents and/or (2) the use of
various prohibited methods. There are five prohibited classes of
substances: stimulants, narcotics, anabolic agents, diuretics, and
peptide and glycoprotein hormones and their analogues (table 1).
Prohibited methods include blood doping and pharmacological, chemical
and physical manipulation.
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Several respiratory . . . [Full text of this article]
