science

Therapeutic use exemption

Therapeutic use exemption is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Therapeutic use exemption rather than just read about it. In short: A therapeutic use exemption (TUE), also known as a temporary use exemption, is a term created in 1991 and refers to an official medical document. The document gives an athlete permission to take a medication listed on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Prohibited List, normally prohibited because its use would be considered a performance enhancing drug.

Key takeaways

Therapeutic use exemption belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Therapeutic use exemption to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Therapeutic use exemption from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A therapeutic use exemption (TUE), also known as a temporary use exemption, is a term created in 1991 and refers to an official medical document. The document gives an athlete permission to take a medication listed on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Prohibited List, normally prohibited because its use would be considered a performance enhancing drug. An example of a TUE is the World Anti-Doping Agency's exemption for testosterone replacement therapy. The average for a normal functioning male is a 1:1 ratio, but WADA allows up to a 4:1 ratio without testing positive for elevated testosterone. Mixed martial arts do not have as stringent anti-doping regulations as most other sports. The Journal of Legal Medicine quotes Dr. Johnny Benjamin, a medical journalist, as stating that in regards to TUEs in mixed martial arts, “TRT is far too easily abused”. In 2017, the Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Journal referred to the abuse of TUEs as “The Legal Dope”. In 2016, Russian cyberespionage group Fancy Bear hacked into WADA's database and exfiltrated information about TUEs granted to hundreds Olympic athletes from over 20 countries (other than Russia), raising concerns over the misuse of TUEs for cheating, including Bradley Wiggins using the corticosteroid triamcinolone acetonide in 2011, 2012, and 2013. In a recent study, 51% of professional athletes interviewed believed that athletes within their sport had received an unnecessary TUE, and another study reported 40% of professional athletes interviewed distrusted the TUE system. Abuse of TUEs happens for more than just steroids. Adderall pills were permitted by Major League Baseball and 85% of players used them as performance enhancing drugs until 2006. In that year, the organization banned “greenies” but started granting TUEs for the substance. In eight years, the percentage of MLB players with TUEs for Adderall increased from 3 percent to 14 percent, prompting concerns that the substance is again being abused as a performance enhancing drug. In addition to steroids, insulin is a concern for cheating with TUEs. As the Cycling Independent Reform Commission’s 2015 report to the president states, “One team doctor stated that he believed the TUE system had been regularly abused, particularly as previously mentioned, in the area of corticoids. Today there appears to be concern among riders about the way in which TUEs are used for corticoids and insulin in particular, and the extent to which they are being abused”.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Therapeutic use exemption

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Therapeutic use exemption claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Therapeutic use exemption before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Therapeutic use exemption ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Therapeutic use exemption

In research: Therapeutic use exemption appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Therapeutic use exemption in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Therapeutic use exemption is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cheating, Drugs in sport, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Therapeutic use exemption outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Therapeutic use exemption in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Therapeutic use exemption means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Therapeutic use exemption out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Therapeutic use exemption in simple terms?

Why does Therapeutic use exemption matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Therapeutic use exemption?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Therapeutic use exemption.