Er astmamedisin doping?

Aims: Beta2-agonists are often used to treat bronchoconstriction in athletes. The drug is allowed for use in sports, but according to the WADA anti-doping code, there is a maximum dose of 0,8 mg inhaled over 12 hours. The aim of this investigation is to analyse the potential ergogenic effect of inhaled and systemic use of beta2-agonists and look at the results considering the prohibited list. Methods: Pubmed, Ovid and Embase were searched for present and relevant literature with search words as asthma, beta2-agonists, doping, endurance, athlete and drugs. Reference lists were also searched for relevant sources. Results: Many studies have already been carried out on the possible performance-enhancing effect of beta2 agonists, with most showing no improvement in performance. In the current task there was not found any significantly improvement in aerob capacity tested with mean power in a biking time trial, an exhaustive swim and biking test, or time trial run with inhaled salbutamol or combination of salbutamol, formoterol and salmeterol compared to placebo. Swimming sprint performance improved significantly with the combination of beta2-agonists. 1 repetition maximum (1RM) bench and leg press, and muscular voluntary contractions (MVC) of m. quadriceps femoris showed no improvement with inhaled salbutamol compared to placebo, but a significantly improvement was found in MVC of m. quadriceps femoris with the combination of beta2-agonists. The total number of isometric contractions of m. quadraceps femoris increased significantly with inhaled salbutamol compared to placebo. Oral salbutamol showed a significantly improvement compared to placebo in peak power in the Wingate-test, and also in a force-velocity bike test. There was no significant difference between oral salbutamol and placebo in exercise performance on a biking test, MVC of m. quadriceps femoris or isometric contractions of m. deltoideus. Conclusion: Inhalation of beta2-agonist did not improve the aerobic capacity, but there were varying results in anaerobic capacity and in strength. The systemic use seems to improve the anaerobic capacity, but not the aerobic capacity and strength. Both because of these findings and results from previous studies, the prohibited list’s approach to beta2-agonist seems reasonable with allowance of inhalation within permitted doses, but not systemic use