Steroids and supplements: Navigating adolescent and young adult use of appearance and performance-enhancing drugs and substances for health professionals

Explore steroid and supplement use in youth with Dr. Kyle Ganson. Examine the growing use, risk factors, and impacts of appearance and performance-enhancing drugs in youth and young adults.

This training is suitable for:

• Mental Health Professionals: psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers.
• Medical Professionals: nurses, psychiatrists, pediatricians, family doctors.

Client category: Professionals working with individuals 12 years to adulthood.

Level of training: Introductory

CE hours: 3

Steroids and Supplements Overview:

This interactive training will explore the growing use of appearance- and performance-enhancing drugs and substances (APEDS), such as whey protein, creatine monohydrate, and anabolic-androgenic steroids, among adolescents and young adults, particularly boys and young men.

APEDS use often reflects a pursuit of an idealized muscular body and aims to increase muscular development, strength, and physical performance. Despite perceptions that legal dietary supplements like protein supplements are safe, research reveals significant physical and psychosocial harms associated with their use. These include medical complications, body image distress, and problematic substance use patterns.

The largely unregulated landscape in Canada, alongside widespread promotion on social media, further elevates the risks for young users. Additionally, recent trends indicate that the use of anabolic-androgenic steroids is more common than perceived, with users often experiencing uninformed clinicians and stigma in healthcare settings. This leads to unmonitored use, which may result in impacts on health and well-being that could be avoided with appropriate harm reduction interventions.

The training aims to enhance participants’ knowledge of steroid and supplement (APEDS) use in youth, including prevalence trends, motivations, risk factors, and adverse outcomes. Participants will also explore multidisciplinary screening and treatment approaches, grounded in harm reduction principles.

Learning objectives:

• Define at least 5 types of APEDS. Accurately describe their intended purposes in the context of muscular development, strength enhancement, and recovery.
• Identify 3-5 psychosocial and environmental risk factors that contribute to APEDS use among adolescents and young adults.
• Identify 3-5 adverse physical, psychological, and social effects associated with APEDS use.
• Integrate medical, mental health, and substance use perspectives to create assessment and treatment protocols for their practice that support adolescents and young adults who use APEDS, focusing on holistic health, well-being, and harm reduction.

Strengthen your clinical approach to APEDS in this on-demand training by building practical knowledge of prevalence trends, motivations, risk factors, and adverse outcomes—and exploring multidisciplinary screening and treatment strategies grounded in harm reduction. Register now!

“Given my line of work in adolescent eating disorders, this seminar was extremely educational. It gave me a better understanding of the variety of APEDS that exist and feel more confident discussing these with my patients. I will definitely be incorporating more questions related to this topic in my assessments moving forward!”

-Tzippy Bernstein, Past attendee, Steroids and supplements: Navigating adolescent and young adult use of appearance and performance-enhancing drugs and substances for health professionals.

Upon registration, participants will receive a confirmation email that includes access information to our on-demand training platform, SickKids Academy Online. Participants will have access for 90 days from the date they begin the course on SickKids Academy Online. Following the training, participants are required to complete a quiz to receive the Certificate of Participation.

This program was originally recorded on January 26, 2026.

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Updated January 26, 2026.