Denial, Apathy, and Win-at-All-Costs
Sports Culture Fuels Steroid Abuse

By Bruce Svare, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology at the University at Albany
And director of the National Institute for Sports.

The win-at-all-costs culture that pervades sports at all levels is a perfect incubator for cheating and the continued use of these dangerous substances.

I have researched steroids for 30 years, served on the first National Institute on Drug Abuse technical review panel on steroid abuse in 1989 and have lectured nationally and internationally on the topic to scientific organizations and sports governing bodies. I have also had the opportunity to speak with many parents and young athletes across the country about the dangers of using anabolic steroids (synthetic forms of testosterone.)

The sum of my experience reinforces four conclusions:

• We as a society are obsessed with winning in sports.

• We are largely in denial about the steroid abuse problem.

• We are apathetic at best about combating it.

• We are only at the very beginning stages of a public health crisis that severely threatens our young people.

Despite good intentions by state and federal politicians, law enforcement agencies, drug testing experts, educators and sports governing bodies, anabolic steroid abuse continues to worsen. Recent research shows that anabolic steroid use is steadily creeping upward among both athletes and non-athletes. Surveys by the Mayo Clinic, the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute on Drug Abuse indicate that upward of a million young people have tried anabolic steroids. Usage by females has doubled since the 1990s, and there are now confirmed reports of sixth-graders who have used steroids.

At the professional and Olympic levels of sport, experts admit that combating illicit steroid usage may be a lost cause. Anabolic steroid abuse is pervasive in every sport, in both sexes, and in all cultures. For example, I recently returned from a four-month Fulbright Scholar stay in Thailand where sports officials acknowledged their national sport of Muay Thai boxing may be riddled with steroid usage.

Professional and Olympic athletes are very sophisticated at using steroids to improve their strength, aggressiveness, endurance, speed and eye-hand coordination. By using designer steroids (as well as growth hormone), which cannot be detected, they can easily evade a positive test.

Players' associations only allow urine tests (and not more sensitive blood tests), thus giving athletes who abuse steroids a huge advantage over testers. Also, commitments by sports governing bodies to fund new technology for more accurate tests have not kept up with the athletes' knowledge of which steroids to use and how to use them to avoid detection.

Scientists studying anabolic steroid abuse are also frustrated by government denial and apathy. Federal funding for basic and epidemiological research in this area is insufficient and has not kept pace with societal needs. For example, systematic studies examining effects of anabolic steroids on the central nervous system, especially as it is related to long-term exposure, are critically needed. Also, studies that "profile" users of anabolic steroids, so we would have a better understanding of the personal characteristics and behaviors predisposing individuals to these drugs, have not been performed. Lastly, research examining the long-term health effects of these drugs, as we have done, for example, with tobacco, alcohol and cocaine, has not been conducted.

Until recently, denial and apathy have also characterized the enforcement of laws governing possession and trafficking of steroids. It is common knowledge that steroids are readily available in gymnasiums and health clubs. The recent uncovering of clandestine pharmacies and underground laboratories as well as offshore Internet Web sites (the federal Drug Enforcement Agency estimates 4,000 transactions a day), is not surprising to those of us who have studied the problem. Unfortunately, for every illicit laboratory, pharmacy and Web site detected and prosecuted, hundreds, probably thousands, more operate with little interference.

Our society puts up with this because we have an insatiable desire to see larger-than-life athletes performing bigger-than-life feats. Fans demand it and players, sports columnists, player associations, governing boards of sports leagues and owners need it. It is good for the economics of sports. Everybody makes money when athletes are allowed to keep using anabolic steroids.

While we may not be able to stem the tide of illicit steroid use by professional and Olympic athletes, we may still have a chance with our young people. However, we must intensify education and prevention, enforcement and testing significantly beyond our presently inadequate and poorly funded efforts.

Year-round unannounced testing of high school athletes with severe penalties for a positive test might be the single most important strategy we have in the war on steroids among our young people. Data collected by the World Anti-Doping Agency clearly show the threat of a positive test can serve as a significant deterrent. Moreover, it sends the clear message that we are serious about steroid usage and that there are consequences for abusing these substances.

Denial, apathy and the desire to win also pervade the thinking of many overly competitive coaches and parents who frequently remark: "Steroids aren't a problem in our community." Coaches look the other way because they seek championships. Parents ignore the problem because they want their children to get an athletic scholarship or pro contract, even though they face long odds in realizing these goals. The win-at-all-costs culture that pervades sports at all levels is a perfect incubator for cheating and the continued use of these dangerous substances. As a result, young people who use anabolic steroids continue to play Russian roulette with their health.

Anabolic steroids are silent killers. It can be years before the cumulative effects exert their influences. Just take a look at the severe biological and behavioral consequences experienced by East German Olympic athletes who were virtual guinea pigs for a government-sanctioned program to elevate athletic performance by steroid exposure during the 1950s, '60s and '70s. Researchers are finding that many of these athletes have died prematurely while others are experiencing severe health problems, including psychiatric disorders, cancer and liver, lung and heart disease.

The war on steroids can be won, but talk is cheap and we need to start acting with more conviction. Otherwise, the three-headed monster of winning at any cost, denial and apathy will overwhelm us, and newspaper reporters 10 years from now will be writing postmortem stories headlined "How we lost the war on anabolic steroids."

First published: Sunday, March 11, 2007 in theAlbany Times Union

Bruce Svare  Ph.D