Publication Date: March 2006

I wanted to let the members here know about an important research project being directed by the Center of Alcohol Studies at Rutgers University. This is the same group that designed and conducted web-based research many of you have already participated in. This is a group of dedicated strength and endurance athletes - weightlifters, runners, rock-climbers, etc.- interested in the role of performance-enhancing drugs (steroidal and nonsteroidal anabolics, ergogenics, thermogenics, anorexigents, and ancillary drugs) as well as exercise routine and diet, on mood changes experienced by bodybuilders and powerlifters. All of us in the community have been troubled by the almost complete lack of objective information about both the benefits and costs of performance enhancing substances. We believe that robust datasets must be developed so that both positive and negative effects associated with these training practices may be honestly assessed and monitored over time, something not possible with the current state of knowledge.

The Rutgers group has already completed several studies which dispel some of the myths about anabolics, and the research group is led by a man whois well-known and respected. The new survey is a fairly brief (20-30 minute) but comprehensive survey of training practices, current mood, and anabolic/ergogenic use that can be answered by athletes over the web. The survey has been approved by the Rutgers University Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects. It is confidential. No names, addresses or other identifying information about the respondent will be taken.

The Rutgers plan is to link the survey (which will be run from a Rutgers-based server) to a variety of website homepages that may be visited by bodybuilders and weightlifters who may or may not have used anabolics/ergogenics. Visitors to the websites could take  the survey by clicking on the link to the Rutgers server. If the Rutgers group is successful in their work, as they have been before with a web-based research effort just like this, they will quickly develop a database containing the responses of several hundred individuals, by many orders of magnitude the largest database yet available on this important and timely issue.

Personally, I am confident that, with such data in hand, data-based as opposed to myth-based policy on performance-enhancing drugs could be argued out vigorously at the national level. We believe this would ensure that the age-old goals of physical culture - robust health and longevity for the far future, as well as beauty and vitality in the unfolding now – are neither buried under a landslide of ill-used drugs, nor frustrated by a lack of data on how some of these agents might be used in a safe way.

To access the survey instrument, go to http://websurvey.rutgers.edu/training/ or click on the new button on the banner at the top of the page.