Patients with difficult-to-control asthma are usually not taking their anti-asthma medication as prescribed by their doctor, according to the findings of a new study.

About five percent of adults with asthma stay difficult to control, with persistent symptoms and frequent flare-ups even with they were prescribed high doses of steroids, as per Dr. Liam G. Heaney at Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, and colleagues.

From in.reuters.com:

To find out, Heaney’s group studied 182 patients referred to the Northern Ireland Regional Difficult Asthma Service. Nonadherence to anti-asthma therapy was not suspected as a major issue, and all patients denied not taking their medicine at their first visit to the clinic.

Nonetheless, it was found that 35 percent of these patients had filled no more than half their prescriptions for inhaled steroids, and these patients were more likely to have been hospitalized at least 3 times in the previous year.

Women were most apt to be lax in taking their asthma controller medication as prescribed, the researchers note in the latest issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Among 51 asthma patients who were supposed to be using oral prednisolone, blood tests showed that 45 percent were nonadherent.

It was concluded by Heaney and colleagues that asthma can be improve substantially if the patients emphasize upon regular preventative therapy (as prescribed).

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John Steffensen, the Commonwealth 400m champion from Sydney, has disassociated ways with the controversial coach Larry Wade in the lead-up to his first international race of the Olympic year.

The coach proved to be a contentious choice in the first place given that the former US hurdler served a ban for two years for using 19-norandrosterone, an anabolic steroid.

From Foxsports.com.au:

The sudden urge to purge comes on the eve of Steffensen’s 400m race in the adidas Classic in Carson, California, on May 18.

And on May 19 another famous – some would say infamous – sprints coach, Trevor Graham, will go on trial for perjury in a San Francisco court.

Graham coached Sydney Olympic 100m and 200m winner Marion Jones, who is currently in jail after admitting she used performance-enhancing drugs.

US authorities will allege that Graham lied about knowing, much less having dealings with, Texas-based former Mexican discus thrower Angel Heredia, a self-confessed dealer in performance-enhancing drugs.

And Heredia has revealed enough evidence, published in The New York Times, to indicate that the collateral damage will spread from Graham’s group to other coaches and athletes, allegedly including John Smith’s HSI coaching group for which Larry Wade, the squad’s one-time star 110m hurdler and a medal favourite for the Olympic Games in Athens, was an assistant coach.

Chris Giannopoulos of IMG, the manager for Steffensen, confirmed the split with the coach and remarked that several coaching options were being assessed.

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Individuals afflicted with conduct disorder, body image disorder, or both are at more risk of becoming dependent on anabolic steroids. This finding was revealed by Harrison G. Pope ’69, a Harvard Medical School professor of psychiatry and lead author of the study.

It was suggested by Pope that future studies are required in an attempt to uncover the consequences of steroids.

From Thecrimson.com:

Conduct disorder is the juvenile version of antisocial disorder, and body image disorder is an unhealthy obsession with the size and appearance of one’s body.

These two factors were found by interviewing and examining the medical histories of 134 weight lifters, who were categorized into three groups—non-steroid users, steroid users with no dependence, and steroid users that had developed dependence.

Pope said more studies are needed to fully uncover the consequences of steroids.

“Steroids are a fairly new phenomenon in the drug abuse scene,” he said. “Science is only now beginning to answer many questions about the effects, especially the long-term effects.”

But contrary to previous beliefs, the study suggested that steroid users do not have an increased risk of prostrate cancer, but are more likely to suffer from cardiac disease and mood disorders.

Some of the effects may be reversible once steroid intake is stopped, but things like cardiac effects may not, since there is the possibility that steroid use hardens arteries and damages the muscle layer surrounding the heart.

The study was published in the Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal.

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According to a statement issued by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), Indian race walker, Rani Yadav, has tested positive for a banned steroid.

Yadav was suspended provisionally from the Delhi Commonwealth games 2010 after she became the third athlete to fail a doping test at the Oct. 3-14 Games after Nigerians Osayemi Oludamola and 110m hurdler Samuel Okon.

From in.reuters.com:

Norandrosterone is a metabolite of the banned muscle-building steroid nandrolone.

Yadav is the third athlete to fail a dope test at the Oct. 3-14 Games after Nigerians Osayemi Oludamola, who was stripped of the 100m gold medal, and 110m hurdler Samuel Okon.

“It’s very unfortunate,” Lalit Bhanot, secretary general of the local organising committee, told a news conference.

“We tried our level best. Not only the federations but also the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) tried with our out-of-competition tests.

“The government is very serious about these things. One can’t be controlled if the person is trying to take some forbidden substance to enhance their performance.”

A sample of the Indian athlete was found to contain 19-Norandrosterone, a prohibited Anabolic Agent under category S1 of the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) list of prohibited substances and methods.

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China should make it a criminal offence to offer banned performance-enhancing substances to athletes and jail those found guilty, according to a leading sports ministry official.

After fearing embarrassment at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Chinese sports ministry cracked down on the use of drugs.

From in.reuters.com:

Most positive tests in recent years have been at provincial level or below, including the unearthing of 450 doses of EPO, testosterone and steroids during a raid on a Liaoning athletics school’s training camp in 2006.

Jiang Zhixue, director of the science and education department at the sports ministry, said there was insufficient deterrent for coaches and officials who administer drugs to athletes.

“We are confined to punishing them technically, giving them bans or fines but nothing more,” Jiang was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

“The (current) regulations have certain connection with the criminal law but the criminal law doesn’t have specific terms regarding this area.”

However, if it was made a criminal offence one of the punishments could be imprisonment.

Jiang said the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency had conducted 14,042 tests in 2009 — 13,336 urine tests and 706 blood tests, more than 6,000 of which were random — and 25 gave positive results.

It is worth noting here that athletes from China were at the center of a string of doping scandals in the 1990s and early years of this century.

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A positive test marked the fourth doping incident at the Delhi CWG Games 2010 and the third by an athlete from Nigeria. Folashade Abugan, the Nigerian runner, tested positive for a banned anabolic steroid and was stripped of her 400m and 4x400m silver medals.

Abugan returned an adverse analytical finding from a test after competing in the women’s 400-meter final, according to a statement issued by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF).

From Pattayadailynews.com:

“Ms Abugan’s ‘A’ sample was found to demonstrate findings consistent with an exogenous origin of endogenous steroids. The delta values indicate an application of testosterone prohormone, which is prohibited under the current WADA Prohibited List S1 Anabolic Agents,” the statement read. Abugan admitted her guilt after refusing to have her B sample tested.

“Ms Abugan wrote to the CGF waiving her rights to have her ‘B’ sample analysed and a hearing, as provided for within the CGF Anti-Doping Standard (ADS). She also admitted liability,” the CGF statement said.

The Federation Court since concluded that Abugan had committed a violation of anti-doping rules and was disqualified from all events that has participated in during the Games, with results nullified.

“This includes her silver medal in the women’s 400 metres. As she was also a member of her country’s second placed 4×400 metre relay team, that result is also nullified,” the CGF said.

Before Abugan’s name broke out, Nigeria’s Osayomi Oludamola and Samuel Okon and India’s Rani Yadav tested positive for banned substances.

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