The anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) are a family of hormones that includes testosterone and its derivatives. These substances have been used by elite athletes since the 1950s, but they did not become widespread drugs of abuse in the general population until the 1980s. Thus, knowledge of the medical and behavioral effects of illicit AAS use is still evolving. Surveys suggest that many million...

Discussion of the problem of anabolic-androgenic steroid abuse has been generally limited to the context of professional sports and major international sporting events such as the Olympics. Anabolic-androgenic steroid abuse is not, however, limited to professional and 61ite athletes, nor to athletes only, but it has now spread to amateur and lower level athletes as well as to the general public...

12 Brower K, Eliopulos GA, Blow FC, Catlin DH, Beresford TP. Evidence for physical and psychological dependence on anabolic androgenic steroids in eight weight lifter. Am J Psychiatry 1990;147:510-2. 13 Bahrke MS, Wright JE, Strauss RH, Catlin DH. Psychological moods and subjectivity perceived behavioural and somatic changes accompanying anabolic-androgenic steroid use. AmJSports Med 1993:20:71...

BACKGROUND Anabolic steroids have the clinical effect of increasing protein synthesis in muscle and other tissues. The brain and spinal cord neurons have gonadal steroid receptors and various studies have shown at structural and molecular levels that androgenic steroids have a significant trophic effect on the brain and spinal cord. CASE REPORT We evaluated the effect of Oxandrolone (an FDA-a...