Feingold: Performance enhancing drugs, on the field and in the classroom

If a person develops a bacterial pneumonia, it makes sense to treat him or her with an antibiotic. This is the proper use of a medication. There are many other examples such as insulin to treat diabetes or drugs to treat high blood pressure.

However, today, there are increasing incidences where drugs are given to healthy individuals for perhaps questionable reasons. For example, some children who are naturally short in stature, mainly because their parents are short, are given growth hormone so they hopefully will grow another two inches. Two inches is not a lot, but it can result in a man being five feet seven instead of five feet five. Growth hormone has been used for a long time to treat children who lack growth hormone, usually without any serious side effects.

A recent article discussed adolescents and college students taking stimulant medications, such as Ritalin, Adderal and Concerta, to improve their academic performance. At times they take them prior to an examination. These are the same drugs used to treat youngsters with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD.

Where do the students get these drugs? Occasionally, a doctor will prescribe them, but frequently they get them from friends who are taking the stimulant medications to treat their ADHD. It has become such an issue that the American Academy of Neurology has decried this practice. The Academy states that the long-term health effects of taking these drugs have, as yet, not been established. The Academy also believes that these youngsters should develop their intellectual skills and decision-making abilities without the aid of medications.

Is taking drugs in an attempt to do better academically analogous to athletes taking steroids so they can perform better in their sport?

There is no question that todays youth are under pressure to get good grades so they can get into good colleges. Once in college, the need for academic achievement continues in order to be accepted to medical or law schools or other graduate schools.

Therefore, performance enhancing drugs are not only used by athletes, but also by students who are attempting to get ahead of their peers.

Does this result in a level playing field if one group takes medications and another one does not - no matter if the playing field is the classroom or the baseball field?

Dr. Murray Feingold is the physician in chief of The Feingold Center for Children, medical editor of WBZ-TV and WBZ radio, and president of the Genesis Fund. The Genesis Fund is a nonprofit organization that funds the care of children born with birth defects, mental retardation and genetic diseases.

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Feingold: Performance enhancing drugs, on the field and in the classroom