Childhood Trauma Linked to Performance-Enhancing Substance Use

Research finds that adverse childhood experiences like physical and sexual abuse and neglect, predict increased use of performance-enhancing substances during young adulthood.

With a sample of more than 14,000 U.S. young adults, findings revealed that traumatic childhood experiences are strongly linked to both legal and illegal performance-enhancing substance use.

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‘More than 25% of both men and women reported physical abuse, and nearly 4% reported sexual abuse in childhood.’
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Individuals who experienced sexual abuse during childhood were especially predisposed - likelihood of using anabolic-androgenic steroids increased nine-folds in men and six -folds in women.

Kyle T. Ganson, lead author, states, "Performance-enhancing substance use is common among young adults, despite many adverse outcomes associated with their use, such as the development of eating disorders, muscle dysmorphia, and substance use disorders. To date, we've known relatively little about what may lead to the use of these substances."

"While it's been documented that adverse childhood experiences are associated with mental health conditions and other substance use behaviors, this study expands our knowledge by now including performance-enhancing substance use," he adds.

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Results of the study showed that more than 25% of both men and women reported physical abuse, and nearly 4% reported sexual abuse in childhood.

Legal performance-enhancing substance use was reported by over 15% of men while anabolic-androgenic steroid use was reported by 3%. For both men and women, experiencing four types of adverse childhood events had the strongest impact on performance-enhancing substance use.

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Jason M Nagata, senior author, explains that childhood abuse can develop a desire to develop a large, and muscular body to protect against future interpersonal trauma, resulting in young people using performance-enhancing substances to build muscle.

"In addition to other adverse health outcomes, legal performance-enhancing substance use has been linked to anabolic steroid use, which can lead to irritability, aggression, poor mental health, heart disease, and liver damage," he points out.

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The findings highlight the need for monitoring potential performance-enhancing substance use among patients with reported adverse childhood experiences and providing psychoeducation regarding the consequences associated with the use.

Ganson suggests that medical and mental health professionals should be aware of and screen for common performance-enhancing substances and adverse childhood experiences regularly.

He further adds that current public policy should protect the health and well-being of adolescents and young adults from the dangers of performance-enhancing substances.

Source-Medindia