A new study, “Legal Performance-Enhancing Substances and Substance Use Problems Among Young Adults,” in the September 2020 Pediatrics (published online Aug. 31), shows legal performance-enhancing substances among adolescent boys are associated with alcohol, nicotine and marijuana use, and that many times lead to alcoholism in young adults. While illegal performance enhancing substances like anabolic-androgenic steroid derivatives are generally well known to be linked to mood disorders, aggression, violence, cardiovascular and immune system issues, substance use disorders and other serious health issues, this study examined the impact of legal performance enhancing substances, which include protein powders, creatine monohydrate, DHEA (also known as androstenolone), and amino acids. Researchers examined data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Of the 12,133 young adults aged 18-26 yers included in this nationally representative sample of adolescents in the United States, 16.1% of males and 1.2% of females reported using legal performance-enhancing substances in the past year. The use of these substances was linked to drinking and use of marijuana in teenaged boys, but also problematic alcohol use in young men, including binge drinking, injurious and risky behaviors, legal problems, cutting down on activities and socialization, and emotional or physical health problems. Among young women, legal performance-enhancing substances use was prospectively associated with higher odds of emotional or physical health problems. Researchers concluded that use of legal performance-enhancing substances should be considered a gateway to future problematic alcohol use, an important consideration for doctors seeing young men who have previously used these supplements, and that lawmakers should consider further regulation of legal performance-enhancing substances, particularly among minors. The study also suggested that more research is needed to help understand the differences between various legal performance enhancing substances.
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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.