Revista de Medicina Desportiva (English) November 2018 | Page 15
will be easier”. The aim is to preserve
the sport truth and the health of
the athletes, with the innovation of
the introduction of the awareness
of all the participants on the sports,
with new partnerships, greater reach
of the target audience, fighting to
the dis-information and spreading
of innovative initiatives. It utilizes
several methods, like brochures, vir-
tual questionnaires, and e-mail and
telephone contact.
Although the existence of these
campaigns, several athletes keep
on trying to improve their physical
capacity taking illicit methods and
others are victims of involuntary
doping when they unconscious con-
sume forbitten substances included,
for example, in the daily regular
medication, being some of free sale
at the pharmacies.
In the World Antidoping Code it
is described the three criteria to
include a substance or method in
the forbitten list, being necessary to
meet two of the following criteria 1 :
• To increase or to have the poten-
tial to increase the sports perfor-
mance
• To Injury or to have the potential
to injury the health of the practi-
tioners
• Get the sports spirit in risk.
Clenbuterol is a sympathomi-
metic substance that acts mostly on
the ß2-adrenergetic receptors, and
usually is prescribed for the symp-
toms that aflicts the airway, as nasal
decongestant and bronchodilator.
With supratherapeutic doses this
drug is used as a doping substance
to increase the muscle mass of the
athletes. Clenbuterol is not as potent
as the androgenic anabolic steroids,
however it can significantly increase
the muscle mass of the athletes
without having the typical side
effects of anabolic steroids. 5
In this case, the substance was
included on the the prescribed medi-
cine as a therapeutic adjuvant to
treat a respiratory infection. Since the
athlete didn’t inform the doctor that
he is a high-level sportsman, that
could be submitted to a doping con-
trol test, the TUE was nor requested
or the choice for an alternative
nor forbitten medicine and equally
effective was not considered for the
treatment. Although this a situation
of involuntary doping, the athlete
was sanctioned. After the notifica-
tion of the positive result, a medical
report was written and added to the
prescription of the doctor to justify
the consumption of the drug in
order to have an attenuation of the
sports penalty.
This clinical case intends to remind
the doctors and the athletes that
“is duty of the sport practitioner to
ensure that he doesn’t consume or
any forbitten substance is intro-
duced in his body or there isn’t the
use of any forbitten method” 3 and
that the forbitten substances can be
found in several medications on the
daily medical practice, and some are
of free sale at the pharmacies.
Whenever there is doubt about
the security of a medication or sup-
plement, there should consultation
to the team doctor, to ADoP or to
visit the site of this magazine in the
section of “O medicamento é seguro?”,
on the right column (https://www.
revdesportiva.pt/). When an athlete
needs to take a forbitten medica-
tion a medical report should be
made and to fill a form that can be
downloaded from the net at ADoP
site, indicating the diagnosis with
relevant medical information and
a clinical justification to take that
forbitten medication and also the
reason there aren’t other reasonable
therapeutic alternatives. The doctor
and the athlete must sign the form
and send it by fax to the number
217977529, and they must wait for
the answer to start the treatment,
which usually takes 2 to 3 days.
The contribution for clean sport
is the responsibility of all of us,
being necessary for that to have
the knowledge and the spreading
of the rules and laws in force about
antidoping, that was the aim of this
publication.
sium Medica Portugal. Lisboa 2016.
2. Ribeiro B. O código Mundial Antidopagem.
Rev. Medicina Desportiva Informa.2015;
6(2)10-15.
3. Lei n.º 38/2012 de 28 de agosto. Diário da
República, 1.ª série – N.º 166.
4. Position of American Dietetic Association,
Dietitians of Canada and American College of
Sports Medicine: nutrition and athletic perfor-
mance. Journal of the American Dietetic
Association, Chicago, 2000; 100(12)1543-56.
5. Fragki, A. G. et al. Sport doping: Emerging
designer and therapeutic b2 – Agonist. Clinica
Chimica Acta, 2013; 425.242-258.
The authors deny any conflict of interests
Correspondence
Dra. Telma Miragaia
[email protected]
Bibliography
1. Autoridade Antidopagem de Portugal. Guia
prático sobre a luta contra a dopagem. Simpo-
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