Sport: Ruinous Pep

Can the so-called “pep pills”—amphetamine drugs such as Benzedrine and Dexedrine—significantly improve an athlete’s performance? Reported the American Medical Association last week: Yes, and as much as 4% in some cases.

In a two-year study, the A.M.A. had teams of scientists at Harvard and Massachusetts’ Springfield College run controlled experiments on in athletes in some 1,300 performances. Results: weight throwers improved between 3% and 4%, runners 1.5%, swimmers between .59% and 1.16%.

The A.M.A. launched its study two years after Dr. Herbert Berger of the New York Medical Society charged that the use of the pills was widespread in sport (TIME, June 17, 1957), intimated that they might be responsible for the rash of four-minute miles (the milers denied using pep pills). Though the use of pep pills has been banned for years by both the Amateur Athletic Union and the International Amateur Athletic Federation, seven of 773 college and high school coaches replying to the A.M.A.’s mail survey admitted they used pep pills on their athletic squads. Presumably, there were other users who did not admit it.

To its findings the A.M.A. added warnings. The pills can help for one climactic occasion, but result in bad hangovers. Used habitually, they can lead to loss of weight, addiction, and, in the end, brain damage.

Pep pills do more harm than good in sports where skill or judgment is paramount, e.g., a football quarterback does not usually need to be keyed up but calmed down. Said Ed Froelich, trainer for the Chicago White Sox: “What sense does it make to hop somebody up today, and tomorrow he’s deader than a mackerel and loses you a ball game?” As for the A.M.A.’s observation that the use of pep pills can be detected by urinalysis, one athletic director commented: “I’d hate to have athletics get to the point where you’d have to check the winners like race horses.”