ReviewSports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)2019
Review of WADA Prohibited Substances: Limited Evidence for Performance-Enhancing Effects.
Review in Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Healthy Athletes: An Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses.Sports healthPooled it
- Pharmacological Interventions in the Management of Sports Injuries: A Review of Clinical Use, Dosage Forms, and Anti-Doping Considerations.Drug design, development and therapy · 2026Review
- Article
- Illegal and falsified medicines self-administrated in not approved post-cycle therapy after the cessation of anabolic-androgenic steroids - qualitative analysis.Frontiers in chemistry · 2025Article
- A cross-sectional study on metoprolol concentrations in various biological samples and their inter-correlations.BMC pharmacology & toxicology · 2024Article
- Label-Free and Ultra-Sensitive Detection of Dexamethasone Using a FRET Aptasensor Utilizing Cationic Conjugated Polymers.Biosensors · 2024Article
- Development of an Ephedrine In-House Matrix Reference Material and Its Application to Doping Analysis.ACS omega · 2024Article
- Exploring the scope and applications of anti-doping measures in ultramarathon: an analysis of the positions of ultramarathon race organizers.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2024Article
- Article
- The molecular athlete: exercise physiology from mechanisms to medals.Physiological reviews · 2023Review
- Trimetazidine Blocks Lipid Oxidation-Should it be Repurposed for Prevention and Treatment of Diabetic Ketoacidosis?Journal of diabetes science and technology · 2022Article
- Genetics and sports performance: the present and future in the identification of talent for sports based on DNA testing.European journal of applied physiology · 2022Review
- An Abductive Inference Approach to Assess the Performance-Enhancing Effects of Drugs Included on the World Anti-Doping Agency Prohibited List.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2021Review
- Influence of Higenamine on Exercise Performance of Recreational Female Athletes: A Randomized Double-Blinded Placebo-Controlled Trial.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Neurostimulation, doping, and the spirit of sport.Neuroethics · 2021Article
- Mechanisms and Clinical Applications of Glucocorticoid Steroids in Muscular Dystrophy.Journal of neuromuscular diseases · 2021Review
- Determinants of the Cardiovascular Capacity of Amateur Long-Distance Skiers during the Transition Period.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Reply to Holgado et al.: Comment on "Review of WADA Prohibited Substances: Limited Evidence for Performance-Enhancing Effects".Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2019Article
- Comment on "Review of WADA Prohibited Substances: Limited Evidence for Performance-Enhancing Effects".Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2019Article
- Current Anti-Doping Crisis: The Limits of Medical Evidence Employing Inductive Statistical Inference.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The World Anti-Doping Agency is responsible for maintaining a Prohibited List that describes the use of substances and methods that are prohibited for athletes. The list currently contains 23 substance classes, and an important reason for the existence of this list is to prevent unfair competition due to pharmacologically enhanced performance. The aim of this review was to give an overview of the available evidence for performance enhancement of these substance classes. We searched the scientific literature through PubMed for studies and reviews evaluating the effects of substance classes on performance. Findings from double-blind, randomized controlled trials were considered as evidence for (the absence of) effects if they were performed in trained subjects measuring relevant performance outcomes. Only 5 of 23 substance classes show evidence of having the ability to enhance actual sports performance, i.e. anabolic agents, β2-agonists, stimulants, glucocorticoids and β-blockers. One additional class, growth hormone, has similar evidence but only in untrained subjects. The observed effects all relate to strength or sprint performance (and accuracy for β-blockers); there are no studies showing positive effects on reliable markers of endurance performance. For 11 classes, no well-designed studies are available, and, for the remaining six classes, there is evidence of an absence of a positive effect. In conclusion, for the majority of substance classes, no convincing evidence for performance enhancement is available, while, for the remaining classes, the evidence is based on a total of only 266 subjects from 11 studies.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.