Steroid Use Drug Trends in Adolescents: Performance Enhancement Trumps Getting High

Steroid use in adolescents increases and decreases in a pattern that differs from alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.  This difference in use trend may be explained, in part, by its use for performance enhancement instead of the pleasure effects associated with getting high.  Examination of adolescent steroid use in the Youth Risk Behavior Study (YRBS) and the Monitoring the Future Study (MTF) suggests steroid use trends may be related to public disclosures of illegal or "designer" steroid use in adult elite professional sports and publicly acknowledged use of diet pills and dietary supplements to aid weight loss improve body image in the general public.   Adolescent steroids are used most commonly by student athletes to increase strength and improve athletic performance with greater efficiency and not to for getting high or for self medication of an underlying or subacute mental illness.  This session will review up to date information on adolescent steroid use in the United States compared with alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, including some regional differences.  The relationship of steroid use to attitutes about the dangers of steroids will also be presented.  The difference in use trends as well as the difference in motivation for use suggests a different approach for prevention.  The few school-based, evidence based steroid prevention interventions in the United States and abroad will be reviewed followed by recommendations.