NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Organizationsresponsible for monitoring doping among athletes should considertighter restrictions on the use of certain drugs now permitted fortherapeutic purposes or to control pain, the authors of a newanalysis of doping data from Belgium and the Netherlandsconclude.

Drs. Wim Van Thuyne and Frans T. Delbeke of the University ofGhent in Belgium noted a sharp increase in the use ofcorticosteroids and asthma medications known as beta-agonists amongcyclists between 2002 and 2005. Both types of drugs can haveperformance-enhancing effects.

“These results indicate that the current granting of therapeuticuse exemption for corticosteroids and beta agonists needs to berevised and that threshold levels for beta agonists should beimplemented,” the researchers state in the Clinical Journal ofSports Medicine.