ArticleHuman psychopharmacology2022
Anabolic androgenic steroids used as performance and image enhancing drugs in professional and amateur athletes: Toxicological and psychopathological findings.
Article in Human psychopharmacology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- The use and misuse of the SCOFF screening measure over two decades: a systematic literature review.Eating and weight disorders : EWD · 2024Pooled it
- Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Healthy Athletes: An Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses.Sports healthPooled it
- Rapid Annotation Strategy forJournal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry · 2025Article
- Relationship Between Anabolic-Androgenic Steroid Use, Aggression, and Narcissism in Male Bodybuilders.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Article
- Psychological correlates of performance-enhancing drug use: Emotional, cognitive, and social functioning in long-term and short-term users.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Forensic approach in cases of anabolic-androgenic steroid abuse and cardiovascular mortality: insights from autopsy, histopathology, immunohistochemistry and toxicology.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2025Review
- Beyond a Game: A Narrative Review of Psychopathic Traits in Sporting Environments.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Clustering psychopathology in male anabolic-androgenic steroid users and nonusing weightlifters.Brain and behavior · 2023Article
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThe use of anabolic androgenic steroids (AASs) as performance and image enhancing drugs (PIEDs), once restricted to professional athletes, now includes amateurs and regular gym visitors. AAS use is associated with psychopathology, yet this relationship is complex and not fully understood. We aimed to assess the presence of AASs and other misused substances in athletes' biological samples and link toxicological to psychopathological findings.
methodsA multicentre, cross-sectional study in fitness centres in Italy recruited 122 professional and amateur athletes training in several sports (84 men; age range = 18-45 years). Athletes completed questionnaires, interviews, and toxicology testing for AASs, other PIEDs, illicit drugs, and non-prescribed psychotropics. Toxicology was conducted in blood, urine, and hair.
resultsSelf-reported and toxicologically detected use rates of AASs and other misused substances showed slight-to-fair agreement (Fleiss' κ = 0.104-0.375). There was slight-to-moderate agreement among the three biological samples used for AAS testing (κ = 0.112-0.436). Thirty-one athletes (25.4%) tested positive for AASs. More sport hours/week, narcissistic or antisocial personality disorders, and higher nonplanning impulsiveness scores predicted AAS use (pseudo-R
conclusionsOur results have implications for studying AAS users, as they identify a cluster of variables that may be relevant in future understanding of AAS use risks (e.g., personality disorders). Possible disagreements between AAS assessment methods should be considered when implementing harm reduction interventions, such as needle and syringe distribution, health education, and counselling, as well as surveillance programmes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.