The sixth NCAA Study of Substance Use Habits of College Student-Athletes conducted since 1985 shows that drug use among student-athletes overall has decreased. Also, at a time when some professional sports are just beginning to test participants for steroids, the NCAA's most recent research indicates that steroid use once again decreased among college athletes.

Steroid use has dropped consistently every year since 1990, when year-round testing was instituted for Divisions I and II football student-athletes. The 2005 study does not reflect the impact of the newly instituted year-round testing in all sports. When the next drug-use survey is administered in fall 2008, all student-athletes surveyed in Divisions I and II sports will have been subject to year-round drug testing.

Robin Meiggs, assistant director of the Human Performance Laboratory and a member of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports (CSMAS), said the survey results help officials measure the effectiveness of the drug-education and drug-testing programs already in place.

"The fact that drug use is down overall indicates the programs are effective and are working as a deterrent against the use of banned substances," she said. "However, the survey goes beyond tracking banned substances. It allows the NCAA to identify new areas of educational need and create media campaigns to meet those needs."

Mary Wilfert, NCAA assistant director of education outreach, said several factors have played into the decline in steroid use among student-athletes, including the removal of steroid pre-cursors from the open market last year and the effectiveness of year-round drug-testing. The number of student-athletes who tested positive for steroids has dropped dramatically since year-round testing was instituted, Wilfert said.

Rochel Rittgers, director of sports medicine at Augustana College (Illinois) and a member of the CSMAS, said educational programs such as the NCAA health and safety Web site, videos, grants for speakers and other programs sponsored by the committee may also have assisted in the drop in overall drug use.

"It is a victory for us if those have contributed to the drop in overall use," she said. "We certainly believe they do or we wouldn't invest the resources for those programs."

Almost two-thirds of student-athletes also reported a belief that the NCAA drug-testing program has deterred their peers from using drugs.

Rittgers said the next challenge for the CSMAS is to recommend legislating year-round drug testing at the Division III level, which represents the largest number of athletes. Division III athletes also are least likely to be tested for drugs, with the only opportunity for a test coming if the student-athlete advances to postseason play.

"The drug-use survey indicates that the use of drugs is present in Division III, but there seem to be philosophical and financial concerns that get in the way of passing legislation to begin testing those athletes year-round," said Rittgers, whose institution is a Division III member. "Athletes at all levels want to be the best they can possibly be at the level they participate and are willing to go to great lengths to make that happen, including the use of drugs such as anabolic steroids and other pharmaceutically regulated agents."

Rittgers urged the Division III membership to consider introducing and supporting legislation creating year-round drug-testing in Division III "both for (the student-athletes') health and for the integrity of Division III sports" because the NCAA drug-testing programs are intended as a benefit to provide safeguards for all participating student-athletes.

Survey findings

The drug-use survey is administered every four years in the fall semester. The 2005 data was collected in the fall of 2004 and included student-athletes from all NCAA championship sports. All member institutions were given the opportunity to participate in the survey through their faculty athletics representative. Nearly 21,000 student-athletes returned questionnaires that asked about specific drugs and nutritional supplements, as well as attitudes about drug testing and drug use among teammates. Most of the respondents were male, and the student-athletes from each division were represented in similar proportions to the number of all student-athletes in the three divisions.

The survey's methodology remains unchanged in the last three times it was administered. New to the 2005 survey were questions about ecstasy and ephedrine use as well as a section on hazing and alcohol's involvement in hazing.

While the survey points to an overall decrease in drug use, including social drug use, the use of amphetamines was slightly up in all divisions, with a jump from 3.3 percent to 3.7 percent overall between 2001 and 2005. Of those student-athletes who reported using amphetamines, 27 percent said the substance was used as a treatment method for attention deficit disorder (ADD). Amphetamines are stimulants that when used by someone with ADD provides medication to a part of the brain that allows the person to focus on a task. In student-athletes without the condition, the use of a stimulant could provide a competitive advantage.

Amphetamine use has seen a steady increase in the drug-use survey since 1993. Both Caucasians and African-Americans report an increase in the use of amphetamines; amphetamine use decreased among other races.

Overall steroid use declined from 1.4 percent in 2001 to 1.2 percent in 2005. That figure has remained relatively stable since 1997. The most dramatic drop in self-reporting of steroid use was observed between 1989 -- when the percentage of the total sample that reported using steroids was 4.9 -- to 1993, when the figure dropped to 2.5 percent. That period included the institution of year-round drug testing in Divisions I and II football.

Men were more likely to use anabolic steroids than women. The number of Caucasians using anabolic steroids decreased in 2005, but it increased among African-Americans and other races.

Of the self-reported steroid users, 43 percent say they use them to improve athletics performance, while 19 percent use to help rehabilitate a sports-related injury or illness. In 2001, only 17 percent reported using steroids to aid in the recovery process. Only 12 percent hoped to improve physical appearance, down from 20 percent in 2001.

Ephedrine use saw a marked decline between 2001 and 2005, falling from 3.9 percent to 2.3 percent. The NCAA began testing for ephedrine in the year-round testing program in 2002. The largest decrease in ephedrine use occurred in Division II. In 2001, 4.1 percent of the Division II respondents reported ephedrine use. In 2005, that number dropped to 2.4 percent. Ephedrine use declined among all races as well, most dramatically among Caucasians. Also, ephedrine use was slightly higher among men than women.

The survey found that most ergogenic use starts in high school, though a small number of student-athletes report beginning to take the substances in junior high or earlier. The number of students who already are using ephedrine by the time they reach the collegiate level has been rising since 1997. Ephedrine users reported the most common reason for the use of the substance to be weight loss.

Nutritional supplements

The survey also asked student-athletes about their nutritional supplement use, which Meiggs said she saw as the next challenge for advocates.

"Every NCAA institution has an obligation to educate student-athletes on banned substances. Additionally, the drug-education package discourages student-athletes from taking any dietary supplements, especially dietary supplements touted as ergogenic aids," Meiggs said. "Just because student-athletes can purchase a nutritional supplement over the counter doesn't mean they are safe to consume. While most nutritional supplements are not banned, some over-the-counter supplements may be tainted and potentially responsible for an athlete testing positive for banned substances."

When it comes to supplement use, the CSMAS emphasizes that student-athletes are responsible for reading a product's label and consulting with the appropriate athletics department representative to determine whether the product's ingredients include an NCAA banned substance on the label (see related story, page 5). Student-athletes assume the risk that supplement products may be mislabeled or contaminated with an undisclosed banned substance. Ultimately, student-athletes are responsible for any substance they put in their body.

In the 2005 survey, 41 percent of student-athletes reported the use of nutritional dietary supplements; 42 percent had reported the same in the 2001 survey. The most commonly reported use was for creatine products, protein and amino acid products, and thermogenics, used for weight loss. The most cited reasons for use were to improve athletics performance (38 percent); for health reasons in general (24 percent); and for weight loss/weight gain (22 percent).

Males reported a higher incidence of nutritional supplement use than females.

Social drugs

Social drug use also was slightly down overall, continuing a trend since 1989. However, Division III student-athletes reported a slight increase in cocaine use, and they reported the highest rates of social drug use of all three divisions. Use of alcohol, smokeless tobacco, cigarettes, psychedelics/hallucinogens and marijuana was down in all divisions. Social drug use has decreased in almost every category for all races.

While men are more likely to use spit tobacco than women, women are more likely to smoke cigarettes than men. Overall, the percentage of respondents who reporting smoking cigarettes is down by more than half since the 2001 survey. Ecstasy, psychedelics and cocaine use are less than 2 percent for both genders.

The use of spit tobacco, long a concern for members of the CSMAS, is down overall, too, though researchers noted a dramatic increase in reported spit tobacco use among football players -- from 12.6 percent in 2001 to 29 percent in the 2005 survey. Spit tobacco use by African-Americans increased from 3.9 percent in 2001 to 4.5 percent in 2005. Those numbers still were significantly lower than those reported by Caucasians -- 17.8 percent -- and others -- 11 percent. Most respondents who use smokeless tobacco began using it in high school, though some reported starting earlier.

While the percentage of student-athletes who reported drinking two or fewer times in a week has remained fairly constant, the percentage of those who consume 10 or more drinks in one sitting increased from 13.5 percent to 17.8 percent. Few student-athletes reported drinking alcohol before competition or practice. Drinking during competition or practice also was rare. Between a fifth and a quarter of student-athletes stated that they had performed poorly in practice or a game or on a test or important project due to drinking or drug use. The overall percentage reporting any alcohol use in the last twelve months is 73 percent of men and 75 percent of women.

New to the drug-use survey in 2005 were questions about hazing. Nearly 7 percent of student-athletes reported being hazed in their college sports program, and of those, half of the incidents involved alcohol. About 6 percent reported that they had actually hazed a teammate, and of those, half also involved alcohol.

Hazing frequency remains about the same through all divisions, but more males report hazing incidents than females. Men are twice as likely as women to participate in the hazing of a teammate, but more women involve alcohol in hazing.