The seduction of evil: Doping and sport activity

Introduction: The assumption of substances in order to increase physical performances is a phenomenon practiced for millennia with the use of a large variety of substances. The growing spread of the abuse of performance-enhancing drugs, once limited to professional athletes, represents a significant public health issue involving multiple disciplines and, also, adolescents in both competitive and leisure sports. Material Of Study: The Authors, after an examine of the historical literature on the use and diffusion of doping substances, analysed the data of the international World Ami-Doping Agency Report and the Italian Sectio}! of the National Anti-Doping Organizations. Discussion: Despite the increase in control efforts, the spread of this practice constitutes an important threat to health, but also to the same ethical values of commitment, responsibility and loyalty underlying sports. Children and adolescents represent a population particularly vulnerable to the risks of an expanding market and the disclosure of distorted information. The current social, cultural and psychological dynamics towards increasingly competitive performances and the constant tension towards exceeding the limit, constitute further risk factors for the expansion of this phenomenon also in the leisure field. Conclusions: The earliness and continuity of training and empowerment initiatives aimed to both professionals and to population, particularly young people, can encourage the construction of bonds of solidarity, respect, trust and sharing and decrease doping motivations and perhaps doping behaviour.