MEDICINA SPORTIVA - Journal of Romanian Sports Medicine Society

The Italian current doping spread: an investigation and its anti-doping strategy of prevention

The use of certain methods, especially of specific pharmacological resources, with the aim of improving performance, is forbidden in competitive sport. Over time, public and private institutions have tried to stem it by setting up information and prevention campaigns aimed at raising awareness of the danger of doping substances. The main places where prevention campaigns have been implemented are schools. The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) has made a significant contribution through the Anti Doping Code, accredited laboratories, the biological passport and the Anti Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS). The purpose of this work is to verify the spread of doping in Italy over the last decade and to understand if a possible decrease in positivity is linked to preventive actions.
Methods. Data are originated from the report commissioned by the Italian Ministry of Health. The last 10 years results have been collected and combined among them. The literature search was performed on the PubMed and Scopus databases and on the official website of the Italian Ministry of Health.
Results. From 2008 to 2014, there was a fluctuating trend in positivity, but from 2015 to 2018 there was a downward trend.
Conclusions. The tests are limited to doping substances included in the WADA list and have involved professional athletes. Therefore, the data collected does not allow us to have a global view on the spread of the phenomenon among the entire sports population and not.