ArticlePsychopharmacology2020
Theory of mind in users of anabolic androgenic steroids.
Article in Psychopharmacology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Social Cognition in Adolescents with Gender Dysphoria and Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia: A Preliminary Investigation of Biological vs. Experiential Gender EffectsJournal of clinical research in pediatric endocrinology · 2026Article
- Psychological traits associated with anabolic androgenic steroid use and dependence: an exploratory cross-sectional study among female athletes.BMC women's health · 2025Article
- Psychological correlates of performance-enhancing drug use: Emotional, cognitive, and social functioning in long-term and short-term users.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Violent Offending in Males With or Without Schizophrenia: A Role for Social Cognition?Schizophrenia bulletin · 2024Article
- Supraphysiological testosterone levels from anabolic steroid use and reduced sensitivity to negative facial expressions in men.Psychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Misadventures in Toxicology: Concentration Matters for Testosterone-Induced Neurotoxicity.Toxics · 2023Article
- Severe Cardiac and Metabolic Pathology Induced by Steroid Abuse in a Young Individual.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Sexual Dimorphism in Language, and the Gender Shift Hypothesis of Homosexuality.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
rationaleAnabolic androgenic steroids are used to improve physical performance or increase lean muscle mass. About one-third of users develop a dependency syndrome, which is characterized by elevated rates of psychopathology, cognitive impairments, and aggressive and antisocial behaviors. The mechanisms behind these intra- and interpersonal problems are not known.
objectiveTo examine theory of mind (ToM), i.e., the ability to infer the mental state of others, in users of anabolic androgenic steroids. Reduced ToM may be one factor underlying the interpersonal problems that have been reported with prolonged use of anabolic androgenic steroids.
methodsThe Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC) was used to assess ToM. Study participants were male/female weightlifters who used anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS, n = 34/9), who were dependent on anabolic androgenic steroids (AASdep, n = 44/7), and a non-using weightlifting comparison group (WLC, n = 69/16).
resultsAnalyses of variance showed that the AASdep group performed significantly worse than the WLC group, for all MASC measures (total ToM, cognitive ToM, affective ToM, overmentalizing/undermentalizing errors). Sex and sex x group interaction effects were non-significant.
conclusionsMale and female weightlifters who were dependent on anabolic androgenic steroids had impaired ToM. Their reduced social cognition may be one contributing factor to the elevated rates of antisocial behavior reported in this population.
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