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news.Researchers have found that anabolic steroids not only make teens more aggressive, but may keep them that way into young adulthood. According to the scientists, the effect ultimately wears off but there may be other lasting consequences for the developing brain.
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The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that nearly half a million eighth- and 10th-grade students abuse anabolic-androgenic steroids (AASs) each year. Not only can steroids set kids up for heavier use of steroids and other drugs later in life, but long-term users can suffer from mood swings, hallucinations and paranoia; liver damage; high blood pressure; as well as increased risk of heart disease, stroke and some types of cancer. Withdrawal often brings depression, and recent research suggests that some AASs may even be habit-forming.
Overseen by Dr Richard Melloni Jr, of Northeastern University in Boston, a study of 76 adolescent hamsters compared how individual hamsters behaved when another hamster was put into their cages.
Normally mild-mannered hamsters still defend their turf, learning aggression during puberty by play-fighting, much like humans. Their roughhousing normally includes wrestling and nibbling. However, hamsters injected with commonly used steroids (suspended in oil) became extremely aggressive.
Even after the drug was withdrawn, the newly vicious hamsters attacked, bit and chased the intruders. In fact, their aggressiveness measured 10 times greater than that of control hamsters injected with oil only. Their full-blown aggression lasted for nearly two weeks of withdrawal, the equivalent of half their adolescence. Eventually, the aggressiveness subsided; by three weeks of withdrawal, all the hamsters greeted intruders with normal, playful defensiveness.
Autopsy revealed that the outward aggressiveness correlated with inner changes in the brain. When the drugged hamsters were hostile hosts, a part of their brains called the anterior hypothalamus pumped out more of a neurotransmitter called vasopressin. By three weeks of withdrawal, vasopressin levels subsided in parallel with the aggressive behavior. The anterior hypothalamus regulates aggression and social behavior. Thus, vasopressin – already known to stimulate that area – appears to fuel the engine of aggression. And, says Dr Melloni, “Steroids step on the gas for aggression.”
Thus, the neuroscientists conclude that the aggressiveness triggered by anabolic steroids, although reversible, may last long enough to create serious behavioral problems for adults.
Furthermore, because this part of the rodent and human nervous systems are similar, researchers generalize their findings to humans. As a result, Dr Melloni and his colleagues speculate that anabolic steroids can dramatically shorten teenage fuses, with this effect potentially lasting for years.