Abstract
The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between use of AAS and psychopathology in a large sample of AAS users and non-using weightlifters. It was hypothesized that AAS users would display more psychopathology than the control group, and that AAS users with an additional drug abuse would display more psychopathology than the AAS users with no drug abuse. An additional aim was to approach the complex question as to why some users develop psychopathology while others do not, investigating the variables 1) debut age, 2) weekly dose, and 3) years of AAS use. The sample consisted of 66 AAS users and 55 controls, and they were measured on psychopathology using the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III), supplemented by information from a semi-structured interview. Frequency statistics based on the MCMI-III scales found that 62, 1% of the AAS users displayed one or more psychopathological features as opposed to 28, 3% of the control group. In addition, of the AAS users with an additional drug abuse, 91, 3% displayed psychopathological features, and AAS users with no additional abuse had 46, 5%. In all AAS users (n=63) debut age was negatively correlated with three MCMI-III scales, borderline rho = -.38, p<.01, negativistic, rho = -.36, p<.01 and the sadistic scale, rho = -.33, p<.01, where low debut age were associated with higher scores on these scales. This study was related to the ongoing project Long-term androgenic anabolic steroid abuse on brain structure, cognitive functioning and emotional processing, where I have been contributing in sampling data.