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PE33: Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs)

Foundation Higher AQAEdexcelOCREduqasCCEA Paper 2

Understanding the different types of performance enhancing drugs including stimulants, narcotic analgesics, anabolic agents, peptide hormones, diuretics and beta blockers, plus blood doping and their advantages and disadvantages.

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💊 Why Do Performers Take PEDs?

Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs): Substances used to improve sporting performance that are banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Taking PEDs is considered cheating because it gives an unfair advantage over clean competitors.

Reasons performers may take PEDs:

⚡ Stimulants

Stimulants: Drugs that increase alertness, reduce fatigue and increase aggression and competitiveness. They speed up the activity of the central nervous system.

Sporting Advantages

Side Effects

Sporting Example

A sprinter might take stimulants to increase alertness and reaction speed off the blocks, and to maintain aggression and focus throughout the race. A boxer might use stimulants to increase aggression and reduce the perception of pain during a fight.

💉 Narcotic Analgesics

Narcotic Analgesics: Painkilling drugs that mask the sensation of pain, allowing performers to continue training or competing despite injury. They work by blocking pain signals to the brain.

Sporting Advantages

Side Effects

Sporting Example

A rugby player with a shoulder injury might take narcotic analgesics to mask the pain and continue playing. This is dangerous because the injury could worsen significantly without the player realising, potentially causing permanent damage.

💪 Anabolic Agents (Anabolic Steroids)

Anabolic Agents: Drugs that mimic the effects of the male hormone testosterone, promoting muscle growth (hypertrophy) and increasing strength. They also speed up recovery from intense training.

Sporting Advantages

Side Effects

Sporting Example

A weightlifter might take anabolic steroids to increase muscle mass and strength, allowing them to lift heavier weights than they could achieve through training alone. Ben Johnson was stripped of his 100m Olympic gold medal in 1988 after testing positive for stanozolol, an anabolic steroid.

🧬 Peptide Hormones

Peptide Hormones: Naturally occurring substances that stimulate the production of other hormones in the body. In sport, they are used to increase red blood cell production (EPO) or promote muscle growth (HGH).

EPO (Erythropoietin)

HGH (Human Growth Hormone)

Side Effects

Sporting Example

Cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted to using EPO throughout his Tour de France victories. EPO increased his red blood cell count, allowing his muscles to receive more oxygen during the gruelling mountain stages, giving him a significant endurance advantage over clean riders.

🚿 Diuretics

Diuretics: Drugs that increase urine production, causing rapid weight loss through fluid loss. They are also used as masking agents to dilute urine samples and make other banned substances harder to detect.

Sporting Advantages

Side Effects

Sporting Example

A boxer who is slightly over the lightweight limit might take diuretics in the days before the weigh-in to lose water weight and make the category. After weighing in, they rehydrate and may be significantly heavier than the limit by fight time, giving them a size advantage over an opponent who made weight naturally.

💙 Beta Blockers

Beta Blockers: Drugs that block the effects of adrenaline, reducing heart rate and steadying the body. They calm the nervous system and reduce anxiety, tremors and the fight-or-flight response.

Sporting Advantages

Side Effects

Sporting Example

An archer might take beta blockers to slow their heart rate and steady their hand before a competition. A lower heart rate means less body movement between heartbeats, allowing a more precise aim. Beta blockers are banned in shooting, archery and snooker.

🩸 Blood Doping

Blood Doping: The practice of increasing the number of red blood cells in the bloodstream to enhance oxygen-carrying capacity. This can be done by transfusing previously stored blood (autologous transfusion) or by using EPO to stimulate red blood cell production.

How Blood Doping Works

Sporting Advantages

Side Effects

Method How it Works Same as EPO?
Blood transfusion Stored blood reinfused to increase RBC count Similar result - more RBCs
EPO injection Stimulates bone marrow to produce more RBCs EPO is a chemical method

📊 PED Summary Table

PED Type Main Effect Sporting Advantage Key Side Effect
Stimulants Increase alertness and aggression Faster reactions, more aggression Heart problems, addiction
Narcotic analgesics Mask pain Compete through injury Worse injury, addiction
Anabolic agents Increase muscle mass and strength Greater power, faster recovery Liver damage, infertility
Peptide hormones (EPO) Increase red blood cells Improved endurance Blood clots, stroke
Diuretics Remove water, lose weight Make weight category, mask other PEDs Dehydration, kidney damage
Beta blockers Reduce heart rate and anxiety Steadier hand, calmer nerves Low blood pressure, fatigue
Blood doping Increase red blood cells Improved endurance Blood clots, infection risk

⚖️ Advantages and Disadvantages for Sport

For the performer: Advantages include improved performance, faster recovery, ability to compete through injury and potential for greater financial reward. Disadvantages include serious health risks, potential bans and loss of titles/records, reputational damage, and the psychological burden of cheating.

❓ Practice Questions

Q1: Name three types of performance enhancing drugs and explain the sporting advantage of each.

Q2: Explain how EPO and blood doping both improve endurance performance. What are the main health risks?

Q3: Why might a boxer use diuretics? Explain the advantage and the health risks.

Q4: Explain why anabolic steroids might appeal to a weightlifter but are dangerous for a teenage athlete.

Q5: Describe the difference between the effects of stimulants and beta blockers. Give a sport appropriate for each.

Q6: "Taking PEDs is a personal choice and should not be banned." To what extent do you agree? Give reasoned arguments.

✅ Answers

  1. Three types: (1) Stimulants - increase alertness, aggression and reaction speed, useful for sprinters or boxers. (2) Anabolic steroids - increase muscle mass and strength, useful for weightlifters or shot putters. (3) Beta blockers - reduce heart rate and anxiety, steady the hand, useful for archers or snooker players.
  2. EPO stimulates the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells, while blood doping involves reinfusing stored blood to increase red blood cell count. Both methods increase the number of red blood cells, which means more oxygen can be transported to working muscles. This delays fatigue and improves aerobic endurance in events like cycling and long-distance running. Health risks include blood thickening (increased viscosity), which raises the risk of blood clots, stroke and heart attack. Blood doping also carries infection risk from the transfusion process.
  3. A boxer might use diuretics to lose water weight rapidly before a weigh-in, allowing them to compete in a lower weight category. After weighing in, they rehydrate and may fight at a weight significantly above the limit, giving them a size and strength advantage. Health risks include severe dehydration, muscle cramps, kidney damage, electrolyte imbalance and heart arrhythmias from potassium loss.
  4. Anabolic steroids appeal to a weightlifter because they increase muscle mass and strength significantly, allowing heavier lifts and faster recovery from intense training sessions. However, they are particularly dangerous for teenage athletes because they can stunt growth by causing premature closure of the epiphyseal (growth) plates in bones, meaning the teenager may never reach their full adult height. They also cause hormonal disruption during a critical developmental period.
  5. Stimulants increase heart rate, alertness, aggression and reduce the perception of fatigue - they speed the body up. Appropriate sport: boxing or sprinting where aggression and fast reactions are needed. Beta blockers reduce heart rate, anxiety and muscle tremors - they calm the body down. Appropriate sport: archery or snooker where a steady hand and calm focus are needed. They have opposite effects on the nervous system.
  6. Disagree: PEDs give an unfair advantage over clean competitors, breaking the contract to compete. They damage the integrity and credibility of sport, discourage young athletes from competing fairly, and pose serious health risks that performers may feel pressured to accept. Sport should be about natural ability and training effort. Agree (limited): Some argue that if all performers had access, it would level the playing field, and that adults should make their own choices. However, this ignores the health risks, coercion pressure on clean athletes, and the fundamental purpose of sport as a test of human ability without artificial enhancement. Overall, PEDs should remain banned to protect fairness, health and sporting integrity.

🎯 Exam Tips

⚠️ Common Errors

Watch Out!

Students often confuse EPO with anabolic steroids. Wrong: "EPO builds muscle mass." Correct: "EPO stimulates red blood cell production in the bone marrow, increasing oxygen-carrying capacity. Anabolic steroids build muscle mass and strength."

Students often forget diuretics' masking function. Wrong: "Diuretics are only used for weight loss." Correct: "Diuretics are used for two reasons: to lose weight rapidly for weight-category sports, AND to dilute urine samples to mask the presence of other banned substances."

📝 Exam Technique

PE Exam Tips — Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs):
1. For Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) questions, use subject-specific terminology precisely
2. Support every point with specific evidence or examples
3. Show balanced analysis — consider different perspectives before reaching a conclusion
4. Link your understanding of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) to real-world contexts where possible
5. For longer answers, plan your response to address all parts of the question

⚠️ Common Errors

Watch Out!

Students often think commercialisation has only benefited sport. Wrong: Commercialisation has only benefited sport Correct: While commercialisation brings funding and media coverage, it can also lead to corruption, loss of tradition, pressure on athletes, and inequality between funded and unfunded sports.

Students often think technology in sport is always a good thing. Wrong: Technology in sport is always a good thing Correct: Technology can create unfair advantages (e.g. expensive swimsuits in 2008 Olympics), slow down games (VAR delays), and reduce the human element of officiating.

Students often think peds only affect the athlete who takes them. Wrong: PEDs only affect the athlete who takes them Correct: PEDs affect the whole sport: they create unfair competition, pressure others to dope to compete, damage the sport's reputation, and set dangerous examples for young athletes.

✍️ Model Answer

Full-Mark Response

6 marks: Explain how performance enhancing drugs (peds) affects sporting performance.

Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) has significant effects on sporting performance. [Key concept 1]: explain the mechanism with specific detail. [Key concept 2]: how this applies in a named sporting example. [Key concept 3]: the relationship between this topic and overall performance. A grade 9 answer uses precise anatomical/physiological terminology, specific sporting examples, and evaluates the relative importance of different factors.

Mark scheme: 2 marks per explained point with specific evidence, evaluation for top marks

📊 AO Deep Dive

Assessment Objective Analysis

GCSE PE tests four AOs: AO1 (Knowledge, 30%) — recall facts about Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) including definitions, classifications and specific examples; AO2 (Application, 30%) — apply knowledge to sporting contexts and training scenarios; AO3 (Analysis and Evaluation, 25%) — analyse data (graphs, tables), evaluate training methods or strategies, and justify recommendations; AO4 (Practical, 15%) — demonstrate relevant skills. For grade 9, use precise terminology, support every point with named sporting examples, and evaluate rather than just describe. The difference between grade 5 and grade 9 is the quality of application and depth of evaluation.

📝 Exam Questions by Topic

🎬 Video Resources

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