PMID: 11899857Mar 20, 2002Paper

Treatment strategies of withdrawal from long-term use of anabolic-androgenic steroids

Polski merkuriusz lekarski : organ Polskiego Towarzystwa Lekarskiego
M Medras, U Tworowska

Abstract

Anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS) withdrawal is established to be an important, though poorly known medical problem, because of AAS potency to cause physical and psychological dependence. Thus discontinuation of high-dose, long-term anabolic steroid use, apart from endocrine dysfunction (hypogonadotropic hypogonadism), may lead to development of withdrawal symptoms. They include mood disorders (with suicidal depression as the most life-threatening complication), insomnia, anorexia, decreased libido, fatigue, headache, muscle and joint pain, and desire to take more steroids. The withdrawal from anabolic steroids usually requires treatment. Clinical management, as with other drugs of abuse, consists of supportive therapy and pharmacotherapy. The goals of treatment are to restore endocrine (hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal, HPG) function and to alleviate withdrawal symptoms. The endocrine medications that are targeted specifically to ameliorate HPG function include testosterone esters, human chorionic gonadotropin, synthetic analogues of gonadotropin-releasing hormone and antiestrogens. They are indicated in the presence of persistent clinical symptoms or/and laboratory evidence of HPG dysfunction. Other medications, that are target...Continue Reading

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