Painkillers and Sleeping Pills: The Hidden Culture in Elite Hockey
Description
This episode explores how elite ice hockey players rely on painkillers and hypnotics to manage injuries and sleep. Discover how team culture, macho attitudes, and deep trust in medical staff shape medication use—and the risks it poses for health and anti-doping compliance.
Dive into a mixed-method study on the use of medications in elite ice hockey. From NSAIDs to sleeping pills, learn how high training loads, late games, and team dynamics drive reliance on pharmaceuticals, sometimes at the cost of long-term health and clean sport.
Main source: Medicalization of Sport? A Mixed-Method Study on the Use of Medications in Elite Ice Hockey
Sofie Christensen, Astrid Gjelstad, Ingunn Björnsdottir, Fredrik Lauritzen
Sports (Basel) 2024 Jan; 12(1): 19. Published online 2024 Jan 5. doi: 10.3390/sports12010019
PMCID: PMC10818849
United States
