The Performance Enhanced: Clinical Relationships Between Performanceand Image-Enhancing Drugs, Physical Exercise and Mental Disorders

Abstract

Mental health professionals can face multifaceted circumstances in which novel compounds, such as performance- and/or image-enhancing drugs, (PIEDs) and novel forms of behavioural addictions interact with pre-existing biological, psychological and social vulnerability factors, leading to psychopathological manifestations. This chapter explores how dysfunctional forms of physical activity may in some cases have a role in this complex phenomenon. It presents three clinical case reports showing a strong connections between mental disorders, sport-related habits, behavioural/substance addictions and use of PIEDs.