ARTICOLI ORIGINALI   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2014 May;173(5):299-308

Copyright © 2014 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Prevalence of anabolic steroids in bodybuilders in the city of João Pessoa-PB: anabolic agents in academies

De Siqueira Nogueira F. R. ¹, De Freitas Brito A. ^{1, 2}, Isidro Vieira T. ¹, Coutinho De Oliveira C. V. ^{1, 3}, Linka Beniz Gouveia R. ^{4, 5}

¹ Department of Physical Education, Laboratory of Applied Physical Training to Performance and Health, Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), Paraíba, Brazil; ² Graduate Program in Natural Products and Synthetic Bioactive Center of Health Sciences, Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), Paraíba, Brazil; ³ Department of Nutrition, Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), Paraíba, Brazil; ⁴ Department of Physical Education, Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), Paraíba, Brazil; ⁵ Department of Physiology and Pathology, Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), Paraíba, Brazil

AIM: In the fifties, the use of anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) is observed to improve sports performance in athletes. The AAS abuse in sports has been a concern of society and government, as well as the most important health agencies and sports. From the eighties, young people began to make use of these products in order to increase lean body mass for aesthetic purposes, as currently observed in Brazil. Therefore, our study aims to understand the purpose of steroid use among young people attending gyms in the city of João Pessoa, Paraíba. We did a field survey, sampling, quantitative method which show how many people use these adjuncts.
METHODS: The study included 510 bodybuilders from 52 academies. The information was collected by questionnaire previously validated, structured and reasoned articles from scientific literature.
RESULTS: The average age of users was 25±5 years, with the main objective to increase muscle mass (69.5%). The EAA used was more testosterone (29.7%), Nandrolone Decanoate (23.0%) and Stanozolol (9.3%). The sources of guidance for the use of gym were friends (57.1%), self-medication (26.7%) and teachers (9.5%). Among the adverse effects caused by AAS, aggressiveness has been reported with the most (44.7%) followed by acne (32%).
CONCLUSION: We conclude that these findings identify the usage profile of AAS, highlighting the need for preventive and educational actions in this population.