Swedish researchers have found that there could well be a link between the use of anabolic steroids and antisocial behaviour.
Anabolic steroids are drugs related to male sex hormones and can be taken through injections or orally; many athletes, bodybuilders and others, both male and female, use steroids without a prescription to build muscle bulk and strength in order to look better.
Steroids can cause serious side effects, including liver cancer, and kidney disease.
Apparently non-prescription steroid use has been linked previously to a number of psychiatric conditions and changes in behaviour and there have been reports of groups such as bodybuilders using anabolic androgenic steroids where hypomania or manic episodes, depression or suicide, psychotic episodes and increased aggressiveness and hostility have been experienced.
Dr. Fia Klötz of Uppsala University in Sweden, and colleagues studied the associations between criminality and steroid use in 1,440 Swedish residents tested for the drugs between 1995 and 2001.
They found that those who tested positive for steroid use were about twice as likely to have been convicted of a weapons offence and one and a half times as likely to have been convicted of fraud.
It appears that the use of anabolic steroids is associated with a lifestyle involving crime, including weapons offences and fraud, but did not appear to be associated with violent crimes or crimes against property.
The authors say aggressiveness appears to occasionally trigger violent behaviour, sometimes even including homicide and steroid use is linked to extreme mood swings, impulsiveness, depression, paranoid jealousy, extreme irritability, delusions and impaired judgment.
The study involved individuals whose average age was 20 who were referred from inpatient and outpatient clinics, including substance abuse facilities, as well as police and customs stations.
Of those screened, 241 tested positive and 1,199 tested negative and served as controls.
The criminal records of all the subjects were scrutinised and offences for which participants were convicted were divided into five categories: violent crime, including homicide, assault and robbery; weapons offences; property crimes, including theft and receiving stolen goods; fraud; and sexual offences.
It was found that those who tested positive for steroid use were about twice as likely to have been convicted of a weapons offence and one and a half times as likely to have been convicted of fraud.