![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 9 of 9. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Noa on September 27, 2000, at 11:38:57
Would all psychiatric medications be illegal for an olympic athlete?
Posted by caroline on September 27, 2000, at 15:06:17
In reply to Olympics and Meds, posted by Noa on September 27, 2000, at 11:38:57
Noa, Hi!
As an ex-elite level figure skater, I don't think they can be, not unless the rules have changed massively since the eighties. Back when I was skating, it seemed as though almost everyone competing was on something for depression, anxiety and/or anorexia!
I hope you are well. Best wishes!
Caroline
P.S. I am actually a regular visitor to psychobabble, I just don't post too often. I work as a counsellor now and love this site, but my aspergers makes me kind of shy of interacting with groups of people (even via a computer!), so I don't post as often as I'd like.
Posted by AW on September 27, 2000, at 19:03:49
In reply to Olympics and Meds, posted by Noa on September 27, 2000, at 11:38:57
> Would all psychiatric medications be illegal for an olympic athlete?
I think they are. AD's for example are known to improve people's energy levels so it would be looked upon as an unfair advantage over other atheletes not on them. In addition, people who take AD's may be considered by the Olympic Committee as 'unstable' and should therefore not be competing.
Posted by ksvt on September 27, 2000, at 19:38:00
In reply to Re: Olympics and Meds, posted by AW on September 27, 2000, at 19:03:49
> > Would all psychiatric medications be illegal for an olympic athlete?
>
> I think they are. AD's for example are known to improve people's energy levels so it would be looked upon as an unfair advantage over other atheletes not on them. In addition, people who take AD's may be considered by the Olympic Committee as 'unstable' and should therefore not be competing.It seems to me that many of the better athletes are demonstrably unstable. I don't think stability is a requirement. ksvt
Posted by Snowie on September 27, 2000, at 21:15:40
In reply to Olympics and Meds, posted by Noa on September 27, 2000, at 11:38:57
I just received this info from Medscape. The timing couldn't have been better.
http://www.nodoping.org/medcod_e.html
Snowie
> Would all psychiatric medications be illegal for an olympic athlete?
Posted by shellie on September 27, 2000, at 21:32:51
In reply to Olympics and Meds, posted by Noa on September 27, 2000, at 11:38:57
> Would all psychiatric medications be illegal for an olympic athlete?
It seems as if antidepressants are fine (i.e., not on any lists). Stimulents and sedatives would be the main problem. But if someone was ADD, they could generally take stimulents, just not for a certain number of hours before the games, because stimulents have such a short half-life.
Sedatives are banned because of sports like archery--sports in which calmness would be an asset. There again, sedatives have a short half-life so they are really just testing for drugs taken in the hours just before the competition.
So I think basically, all of us could be okay.
Noa, are you thinking of going for the gold in 2004? Shellie
Posted by noa on September 28, 2000, at 16:22:59
In reply to Re: Olympics and Meds, posted by AW on September 27, 2000, at 19:03:49
Youre kidding, right? They can discriminate against athletes on the basis of some vague sense of who is "stable" and who is not? I would think that as long as you haven't been disciplined for outrageous behavior while involved in a competition, they can't discriminate if you have a disease of any kind.
Posted by noa on September 28, 2000, at 16:30:23
In reply to Re: Olympics and Meds, posted by Snowie on September 27, 2000, at 21:15:40
Thanks, snowie!
According to that code, my ritalin would be out, but it seems the others would be ok (effexor and serzone).
It is interesting that steroid inhalers for asthma are allowed as long as the need is documented in writing.
I heard that the gymnast wouldn't have had a problem as long as the doctor had written more completely what he prescribed--ie, he wrote the brand name of the med (pain releiver), but left out that he was directing her to take the cold/flu version of it, which has the pseudoephedrine in it, in other words, it would have been ok for her to take it, but it needed proper documentation and the doc omitted that.
Posted by noa on September 28, 2000, at 16:36:51
In reply to Re: Olympics and Meds » Noa, posted by shellie on September 27, 2000, at 21:32:51
>
> Noa, are you thinking of going for the gold in 2004? Shellie
LOL, oh ya, that's me.I remember when I turned 18 and was watching world class gymnastics on tv, and I mused that I was already too old for "Women's" gymnastics, even though I hardly felt like a woman yet, still a girl (this was ages ago when they were all really really young as opposed to now, when some are the ripe old age of 22!!). I felt a kind of loss. The person I was with said, "but, you don't do gymnastics", which totally missed the point.
You get the point, right?Anyway, nowadays, I have a hard time even conceiving of that kind of devotion, discipline, and goal-orientation. My current level of self-discipline? Heck, it's all I can do to follow through on brushing my teeth twice a day!
This is the end of the thread.
Psycho-Babble Medication | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.