“No pain, no gainz”? Performance and image-enhancing drugs, health effects and information seeking

Anabolic androgenic steroid abuse in the United Kingdom: An update

“…Administration of anabolic androgenic steroid compounds in animal studies and observations of human subjects displaying elevated levels of endogenous testosterone have predicted some of the behaviours expected in anabolic androgenic steroid abusers. Extreme anxiety, depression, irritability, increased aggression (“roid rage”; Heimly Jenssen & Johannessen, ; Lindqvist Bagge et al, ; Rowe, Berger, & Copeland, ), and violent behaviour (Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, ; Lundholm et al, ) have emerged as common responses.…”

“…However, this may be compounded by co‐administration of other psychoactive substances (Lundholm et al, ). Especially as animal studies suggest that whilst anabolic androgenic steroid‐induced aggression may be a characteristic of adolescent anabolic androgenic steroid use, anxiety is the more prominent attribute amongst adult users (Olivares et al, ; Rowe et al, ).…”

Health risk and health seeking behaviours among people who inject performance and image enhancing drugs who access needle syringe programs in Australia

“…A compounding concern is that health‐care providers in Australia and elsewhere report experiencing difficulties engaging with this group and there appears to be a lack of knowledge in the workforce about performance and image enhancing substances . Users often do not disclose enhancement drug use, turning to their peers or the internet to obtain information or to seek help, instead of educational programmes or health‐care services . In Australia, this reliance on lay information sources appears to be particularly apparent among people who speak languages other than English .…”

“…Users often do not disclose enhancement drug use, turning to their peers or the internet to obtain information or to seek help, instead of educational programmes or health‐care services . In Australia, this reliance on lay information sources appears to be particularly apparent among people who speak languages other than English .…”

“…Users are generally categorised according their primary motivation for use (e.g. ‘occupational users’ or ‘aesthetic users’) but these broad groups do not capture the specific risk profiles of different user groups. More recently, Christiansen et al .…”