Jim McVeigh
Jim holds the post of Professor in Substance Use and Associated Behaviours at Manchester Metropolitan University. He has worked within the field of substance use for nearly 30 years initially as a Nurse at The Maryland Centre working with people who inject drugs, before moving into academia and building an international reputation within the field of human enhancement drugs, in particular, the use of anabolic steroids and associated drugs. In 2020, he founded the Anabolic Steroid United Kingdom Network and leads the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded research ‘Image and Performance Enhancing Drug Use in the United Kingdom’.
The United Kingdom response to the use of anabolic androgenic steroid use for muscular enhancement.
In response to growing concerns regarding the use of anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) and associated image and performance enhancing drug (IPED) use in the United Kingdom, the NIHR funded a development award to assess the available intelligence and research gaps to inform a future intervention evaluation. The project was completed by a partnership from Manchester Metropolitan University, Liverpool John Moores University, University of Birmingham and University of Bath. Additionally, an expert steering committee together with a public expert advisory board, including representatives the gym and AAS using communities provided an essential contribution to all aspects of the research.
Findings from this research include the first estimates of the extent and distribution of AAS use across Great Britain. The research also established both the level and nature of service provision across the country, including availability of AAS clinics and targeted needle and syringe programmes. The outputs from a scoping of all relevant recent publications will be presented, with an overview of the focus of UK research, the key findings and research gaps. Finally, findings will be presented from a systems mapping exercise, identifying the key factors that influence the harmful use of AAS and associated IPEDs.
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