SAINT-MAX CEDEX, France, June 20 (UPI) -- About 3 percent of 15-year-old teens in France admit using performance enhancing drugs to do better in sports, a study found.
In November 2001, the authors questioned 3,500 11-year old children entering their first year of secondary school in eastern France about their use of drugs banned under the World Anti-Doping Agency International Standard.
The children filled out questionnaires every six months for four years, which asked about use of doping agents, tobacco, alcohol and marijuana; involvement in sports; assessed self-esteem and anxiety.
The study, published online ahead of print in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found the drug most commonly used to improve sporting prowess was salbutamol, taken by 45 percent of users; corticosteroids were taken by 10 percent; marijuana by 6 percent; and other stimulants and anabolic agents by 38 percent.
Health problems, including becoming violent, change of voice and loss of consciousness, were experienced by 4 percent of the users, according to the researchers.
