NCJ Number
133490
Date Published
1989
Length
43 pages
Annotation
The General Accounting Office (GAO) reports the information it has obtained on the use of anabolic steroids among high school and college students, health consequences resulting from anabolic steroid use, policies and regulations developed by sports associations to monitor athletes' use of anabolic steroids, and quantity of legal and illegal anabolic steroids that are produced and distributed both domestically and internationally.
Abstract
Published studies and other information obtained indicate that high school, college, and professional athletes and, to a lesser extent, others participating in sports misuse anabolic steroids to enhance their performance. Studies on the health risks of anabolic steroids suggest that anabolic steroids may increase the risk of heart disease, produce liver toxicities, affect sex characteristics and reproductive capacity, cause possible psychological disorders and tendon and ligament injury, and result in stunted growth in children and youth. Several sports associations have adopted drug policies that condemn and prohibit the use of anabolic steroids, and many have implemented drug-testing programs to monitor the use of anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroids and human growth hormones are not classified under the Federal Controlled Substances Act. 9 appendixes