Miscellaneous uses of anabolic steroids

The original list of indications for anabolic-androgenic steroids has been reduced to those discussed in this publication so far and to mammary carcinoma, deficiency states and growth disorders. In disseminated endocrine-responsive mammary carcinoma in the female, anabolic drugs have a proven palliative effect in some 20 to 40% of patients, arresting tumour growth for up to 12 months and improving the patient's general condition. In high doses they can cause a disturbing increase in libido. Patients with deficiency states can, irrespective of the cause, benefit from adjunctive anabolic steroid treatment, provided their food supply is adequate. Positive effects are exerted by the anabolic agents' protein anabolic and anticatabolic actions, by psychic stimulation of the patient and by enhancement of recovery. Current trials strongly indicate that oral anabolic drugs administered alone or in combination with growth hormone or thyroid preparations are of therapeutic value in growth disorders such as constitutional delay of growth and puberty, hypopituitary dwarfism, chronic renal diseases and in Turner's syndrome.