Anabolic Steroid Use: Fact vs. Fiction

[Neo]

Does anyone have any insights or experience on this topic?...

Steroids (Anabolic-Androgenic)

Anabolic-androgenic steroids are man-made substances related to male sex hormones. “Anabolic” refers to muscle-building, and “androgenic” refers to increased masculine characteristics. “Steroids” refers to the class of drugs. These drugs are available legally only by prescription, to treat conditions that occur when the body produces abnormally low amounts of testosterone, such as delayed puberty and some types of impotence. They are also prescribed to treat body wasting in patients with AIDS and other diseases that result in loss of lean muscle mass. Abuse of anabolic steroids, however, can lead to serious health problems, some irreversible.

Today, athletes and others abuse anabolic steroids to enhance performance and also to improve physical appearance. Anabolic steroids are taken orally or injected, typically in cycles of weeks or months (referred to as “cycling”), rather than continuously. Cycling involves taking multiple doses of steroids over a specific period of time, stopping for a period, and starting again. In addition, users often combine several different types of steroids to maximize their effectiveness while minimizing negative effects (referred to as “stacking”).


Health Hazards



In addition, people who inject anabolic steroids run the added risk of contracting or transmitting HIV/AIDS or hepatitis, which causes serious damage to the liver.


Scientific research also shows that aggression and other psychiatric side effects may result from abuse of anabolic steroids. Many users report feeling good about themselves while on anabolic steroids, but researchers report that extreme mood swings also can occur, including manic-like symptoms leading to violence. Depression often is seen when the drugs are stopped and may contribute to dependence on anabolic steroids. Researchers report also that users may suffer from paranoid jealousy, extreme irritability, delusions, and impaired judgment stemming from feelings of invincibility.1

Research also indicates that some users might turn to other drugs to alleviate some of the negative effects of anabolic steroids. For example, a study of 227 men admitted in 1999 to a private treatment center for dependence on heroin or other opioids found that 9.3 percent had abused anabolic steroids before trying any other illicit drug. Of these 9.3 percent, 86 percent first used opioids to counteract insomnia and irritability resulting from the anabolic steroids.2

Extent of Use
Monitoring the Future Survey (MTF)*

MTF annually assesses drug use among the Nation’s 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students. Past year** use of anabolic steroids remained stable at under 1.5 percent for students in 8th, 10th, and 12th grades in the early 1990s, then started to rise. Peak rates of past year use occurred in 2002 for 12th-graders (2.5 percent), in 2000 and 2002 for 10th-graders (2.2 percent), and in 1999 and 2000 for 8th-graders (1.7 percent). In 2003, steroid use by 10th-graders declined significantly to 1.7 percent. The rate among 12th-graders, 2.1 percent, was also down from 2002, but not significantly. Among 8th-graders, 1.4 percent reported steroid use in the past year.

Most anabolic steroids users are male, and among male students, past year use of these substances was reported by 1.8 percent of 8th-graders, 2.3 percent of 10th-graders, and 3.2 percent of 12th-graders in 2003.


Anabolic Steroid Use by Students
Year 2003 Monitoring the Future Survey

8th-Graders 10th-Graders 12th-Graders
Ever Used 2.5% 3.0% 3.5%
Used in Past Year 1.4 1.7 2.1
Used in Past Month 0.7 0.8 1.3

 

[Moonbear]

Does anyone have any insights or experience on this topic?...

Steroids (Anabolic-Androgenic)

We recently discussed this topic in this thread:
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=40876

In addition, people who inject anabolic steroids run the added risk of contracting or transmitting HIV/AIDS or hepatitis, which causes serious damage to the liver.

Where did you get this information? Steroids wouldn't have anything to do with contracting HIV/AIDS or hepatitis, unless people injecting them were sharing needles with someone who had one of these diseases. That sort of risk would be common to any situation where someone isn't using clean needles for injections of something.

 

[nautica]

What exactly are your questions and we can go from there.

nautica

 

[adrenaline]

As for anabolic steroid use in healthy people, as a purist, there are no long term studies (done past 6 months) to really prove either case (pro or con) about their safety. So people should not completely bash it since we have no long term data, ( either in the form of both clinical trials or epidimiolgical data) that are of significant numbers to show that anabolic steroids are that dangerous (or that safe) A better argument might be compare it to commonly used over the counter drugs and show how they are safer (in the short term) than usage of say ephedrine etc.(also used to enhance sports preformance) and have much higher complications and danger in the short term usage.

Here is a link that show how roid rages are a fallacy ( people who went into them probably had underlying personality disorders rather than being caused by steroids.) psychiatrists concede that there usually is an underlying personality disorder that predisposes someone to the psychiaric complications of steroids. Unfortunately, no doctor is screening them for these disorders before placing them on steroids. Much the same way a person with manic depressive disorder cannnot be put on certain antidepressants willy nilly since they can flip into mania.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/408595_5

Several reports of mental status changes associated with AASs have been published. These include acute paranoia,[32] delirium,[33] mania or hypomania,[34,35] and homicidal rage.[36,37] Studies comparing AAS users to nonusing weight lifter controls have found significantly more episodes of depression, anxiety, hostility, paranoia, and aggression in users of AAS.[38, 39] One study comparing AAS users on vs off AASs reported a higher rate of aggressive feelings, verbal aggression, and aggression toward objects, but not physical aggression toward people, while on the agents. AAS users have also been observed to have a significantly greater rate of personality psychopathology compared with community controls.[40,41] As none of these studies are randomized, causality is difficult to establish in the association of AASs and psychiatric changes, including aggression and hypomania.
At least 5 studies have administered supraphysiologic doses of testosterone in a placebo-controlled design to psychiatrically "normal" subjects.[42-46] Overall, these studies indicate that the majority of normal individuals will not experience psychiatric changes with testosterone doses up to 500-600 mg/week. However, this response is not uniform and individual patients will experience marked affective changes, particularly as the dose increases beyond 500 mg/week. Furthermore, the majority of real-world AAS abusers will use doses greater than the equivalent of 500 mg of testosterone. Patients with underlying psychopathology (eg, antisocial personality disorder) or a general predisposition toward anger are probably more likely to experience an increase in angry or aggressive behavior. This relationship is important because these individuals are probably more likely to use anabolic steroids illicitly, compared with "healthy, psychologically normal men."

The potential for addiction to the AASs has been investigated. In interviews with 49 AAS users, at least 1 DSM-III-R symptom of dependence was reported by 94% of the sample, while 3 or more symptoms were reported by 57% of the sample.[47] The authors concluded that AASs were addictive and suggested that dissatisfaction with body size and increases in size and strength obtained with AASs may lead to patterns of dependent use.

 

[nautica]

adrenaline,

It is nice to see someone who does not give their personal opinions as facts. Which is what most do when it comes to AAS use. Whether they are for or against. B/c like you said, there are really no long term studies, which lead in either direction.

Nautica