Science / Medicine : Steroid Addiction Reported

Athletes who take high doses of steroids may risk addiction similar to that of narcotic abuse, doctors warn. In a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors report a case of steroid dependence in a man who regularly took four kinds of steroids.

The 23-year-old body builder told doctors he could not stop taking anabolic steroids without experiencing withdrawal symptoms, depression and disabling fatigue. He said he sometimes felt uncontrollably violent, paranoid and suicidal.

After a week off steroids, he told doctors that he couldn’t bear his depression, fatigue and drug craving and intended to resume taking the drugs.

The letter was written by Drs. Forest Tennant of Community Health Projects Medical Group in West Covina, David L. Black of Vanderbilt Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Hospital in Nashville, Tenn., and Robert O. Voy of the U.S. Olympic Committee.