Study Finds No Link Between Steroids, Rage

Bodybuilders already believed it, and science has finally proved it: Steroids make big muscles. But researchers found no evidence that steroids make users prone to outbursts of anger known as “ ‘roid rage.”

The carefully controlled study showed convincingly for the first time that a few weeks of male sex hormone injections substantially beef up arms and legs and increase strength.

Men who exercised and took steroids for 10 weeks put on an average of 13 pounds of virtually pure muscle.

In addition, psychological tests and questioning of the men’s spouses found no evidence that steroids made them angrier or more aggressive. Steroids are widely thought to cause extreme mood swings, and people charged with violent crimes have pleaded ‘roid rage as a defense.

But among steroid users who are mentally healthy, “testosterone doesn’t turn men into beasts,” said Dr. Shalender Bhasin of Charles R. Drew University in Los Angeles.

Bhasin and his colleagues said their results in no way legitimize steroid use by athletes. But they do suggest steroids might be a good way to help AIDS patients and others whose muscles waste away because of disease.

Possession and distribution of steroids without a prescription is a federal crime. Doctors have warned that the potential side effects include sterility, testicular shrinkage, acne, abnormal liver function and baldness.

In the study, the men getting steroids took weekly injections of 600-milligram doses for 10 weeks. This gave them about six to eight times more testosterone than their bodies produced naturally.

The results are published in today’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.