updated 12:40 p.m. ET March 30, 2005

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A South Carolina doctor accused of writing steroid prescriptions for three players on the Carolina Panthers says he prescribes the drugs only when medically necessary.

Dr. James Shortt, an alternative practitioner under investigation by federal and state officials, said in Wednesday’s editions of The Charlotte Observer that he prescribes steroids only in low doses and monitors patients to ensure their steroid levels are within “their upper limit of normal.”

“People come to me often because they’re worn down, they’re exhausted, or something has happened to them and they haven’t recovered fully,” Shortt said during an interview with the paper at his office Tuesday.

“60 Minutes Wednesday” was to broadcast a report Wednesday night that said Panthers punter Todd Sauerbrun and center Jeff Mitchell and former offensive lineman Todd Steussie filled testosterone cream prescriptions written by Shortt during the 2003 season, when the team went to the Super Bowl.

In addition to the cream, which is banned by the NFL, Sauerbrun — one of the league’s top punters — also obtained syringes and the injectable steroid Stanozolol, which is also banned by the league.

The Panthers have said they are cooperating with law enforcement and the NFL in their investigation of Shortt’s connection to the team.

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Shortt is under criminal investigation for his role in the deaths of two patients to whom he gave controversial hydrogen peroxide infusions. One of those patients also was taking testosterone cream on Shortt’s orders.

Shortt said he is careful in his use of steroids.

“There are folks out there, and I think it’s lunacy, that are using chemically altered molecules in ridiculous unsafe quantities,” he told The Observer. “I have no respect for those people, and I want to tell you right now I am 100 percent opposed to that.”

He declined to identify any of his patients, saying only that athletes are “a tiny percent of my overall patient load,” no more than 2 percent.

And he said he had prescribed Stanozolol but stopped after being informed it could be illegal. He declined to specify the circumstances in which he prescribed the drug.

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