Performance Enhancing Medications and Drugs of Abuse

by Mark Gold

Overview

Performance Enhancing Medications and Drugs of Abuse explores various medications currently being abused by patients, from the drugs used for physical and cosmetic purposes by weekend warriors, professional athletes, and other at-risk populations, to the drugs used to enhance mood and memory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780789036650
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/17/2007
Series:	Journal of Addictive Diseases Ser.
Pages:	66
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 10.60(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Mark S. Gold, MD, is a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Community Health & Family Medicine at the University of Florida College of Medicine. He is also a member of the McKnight Brain Institute and is Chief of the Addiction Medicine Division in the Department of Psychiatry. He has written over 900 medical articles, chapters, and abstracts in health professional journals on wide variety of psychiatric research subjects, and authored 12 professional books, including practice guidelines, ASAM core competencies, and medical textbooks for primary care professional. He is also author of 15 general audience books. As a researcher and inventor, he worked for nearly 30 years to develop models for understanding the effects of tobacco and other drugs on the brain and behavior.

Table of Contents

Introduction; A Review of Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Professional Sports and Their Spread to Amateur Athletics, Adolescents, and Other At-Risk Populations; Nicotine: Risks and Performance-Enhancing Effects; Anabolic Steroid Abuse: Neurobiological Substrates and Psychiatric Comorbidity; Performance Enhancement and Adverse Consequences of MDMA; Performance Enhancing, Non-Prescription Use of Erectile Dysfunction Medications

What People are Saying About This

Penny Booth Page

This expert compilation provides AN IN-DEPTH OVERVIEW OF THE DEVELOPMENT, USE, CONSEQUENCES, AND ABUSE POTENTIAL OF A WIDE RANGE OF PERFORMANCE-ENHANCING DRUGS. It goes beyond the better known substances, such as steroids and human growth hormone used in sports performance, to look at the use of MDMA (ecstasy) and ED (erectile dysfunction) medications to improve behavioral and sexual experience. There is even a chapter on the therapeutic benefits of nicotine in neurological and psychiatric diseases. . . . A USEFUL TOOL FOR RESEARCHERS AND CLINICIANS seeking better treatments and prevention of misuse. (Penny Booth Page, MLS, Director of Information Services, Rutgers University Center of Alcohol Studies)

Norman Miller

DR. GOLD HAS DONE IT AGAIN! He eloquently assumes leadership in a critically important area in today's health. . . . ESSENTIAL READING for all physicians, residents, students, policy makers, educators, athletes, those involved in professional and college sports both nationally and internationally. (Norman Miller, MD, Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine, Michigan State University, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Florida)

Robert L. DuPont

Performance-enhancement is a surprising new frontier in medicine that confounds the old stereotypes about drug abuse. The use of drugs to improve performance, rather than to get high, poses entirely new challenges in addiction medicine. Once again in the forefront of psychiatry, Mark Gold maps the biological terrain and OFFERS USEFUL WAYS TO UNDERSTAND THIS EXPLODING MODERN MAELSTROM. (Robert L. DuPont, MD, First Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Second White House Drug Czar, President, Institute for Behavior and Health, Inc. (IBH), Author of The Selfish Brain: Learning From Addiction)

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Michael Schrift, DO (University of Washington School of Medicine)
Description: Is there a dividing line between the treatment of illness and the enhancement of normality? What are the societal implications for enhancing normal function? What about issues of distributive justice: will pharmacological enhancement further divide the rich from the poor? This book disappointingly does not address these important societal issues but is essentially a factual review of the use of various performing-enhancing medications and drugs of abuse. As the naturalistic fallacy states - one cannot derive an ought from an is — this book gives information regarding the extent of use, but does not address the foundational principles upon which we should judge whether the use is right or wrong. Published as a supplement to the Journal of Addictive Diseases, vol. 25, 2007, this book is written with no real editorial linkage of the various articles (except that Dr. Gold is a coauthor of all but one of the articles). Although the articles are written by nationally recognized clinician-researchers in the field, I was disappointed that the societal and bioethical issues regarding the use of enhancing treatments are not addressed.
Purpose: The purpose is to address, for clinicians, the various drugs abused by patients in various settings.
Audience: The targeted audience is primarily physicians who prescribe the drugs in question. Researchers of this important issue would find the factual information essential.
Features: The book contains five articles with an editorial introduction and an index. The first article reviews the use of performance-enhancing drugs in professional and amateur sports. The performance enhancing properties and risks of nicotine, anabolic steroids, and MDMA are addressed in the following articles. The final article covers use of nonprescription drugs for erectile dysfunction. Each article ends with a reference section with citations of the relevant scientific literature. A concern that I have is that the journal-like format suggests that the articles are peer-reviewed. I suspect, though, that since supplements are typically not peer-reviewed, neither is this publication.
Assessment: This is a new compilation of articles on an extremely important area of societal concern. Not addressing the ethical issues and principles or ways to conceptualize treatment versus enhancement is a significant omission and renders the publication more like an encyclopedia than a book.

Doody's Review Service