Drug testing has only a minimal deterrent effect on high-school athletes' use of steroids, according to a new study.

The New York Times reported Oct. 18 that researcher Linn Goldberg of the Oregon Health & Science University and colleagues compared self-reported drug-use rates at 11 Oregon high schools -- five with random drug-testing, and six that don't require drug testing of student athletes.

"The big thing that people say is you got to give kids a reason not to use drugs, and drug testing is a reason," Goldberg said. "That's not what we found. You can look at testing as a way to catch an early addiction, but as a deterrent, which this study was looking at, we didn't find any evidence that testing was a deterrent."

The authors did not recommend that schools stop drug testing of athletes, but said that school administrators may want to think twice about spending money on programs that may not have the deterrent effect they expect. Goldberg also warned schools against using testing as a substitute for drug education.

"Here's what I see is the big problem: If you put in drug testing and you think it works, then you're not going to put anything else in," he said. "You're not going to care about anything else because you probably feel, 'We've taken care of it.' "

The study was published in the November 2007 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.