Steroid addiction a risk for young athletes

'Star of the football team'
"The problem is steroids can make you the star of the football team," says Dr. Charles Yesalis, a Pennsylvania State University professor and expert in the field of steroid abuse who testified at the congressional hearings. "Here's a drug that can make you more popular, sexually attractive and can make you a winner."

Most competitive athletes experienced with steroids know not to go cold turkey, say doctors. But school athletes worried about getting tested or getting caught by their parents may not realize the risks of sudden withdrawal.

"Steroids are a controlled prescription drug, like a hardcore pain medication," says Dr. Jon Divine, director of the Sports Medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "It really takes close monitoring to get off the drug."

While abusing steroids, a person's own mechanism for making testosterone is suppressed, explains Dr. Rebecca Sokol, professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. The brain shuts off the stimulating hormones that prompt the male testes to make testosterone and sperm, and the person's mechanism for making testosterone shuts down.

"If they stop the drug suddenly, it's going to take a minimum of two to four weeks for their brain and testicles to kick back in and begin making their own testosterone."

Deflated muscles
One of the first noticeable effects of steroid withdrawal is deflated muscles, usually within three to four weeks.

For a person emotionally fixated on having the ideal physical appearance, "it can be a very powerful thing" to experience, says Dr. Tracy Olrich, a sports psychologist at Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant. "An adult can weather that storm, but for a 17-year-old or 18-year-old, it's very tough."

Getting off steroids can be hardest for those suffering from poor body image, says Yesalis. "They’re so bothered by the loss of strength or loss of definition, they go back on them."

Users can slowly wean themselves off by using fertility hormones or synthetic pituitary hormones to supplement the lack of testosterone, level off depression symptoms and reduce fatigue, doctors say.

If symptoms of depression are severe, antidepressants can be prescribed, although antidepressant use by adolescents can also be risky.

"About three months after stopping is the highest risk period, but symptoms can go on longer," Brower says.

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