Use of multiple drugs among adolescents who use anabolic steroids

Because adolescent users of anabolic steroids are concerned with increasing muscle size and strength, they may be unique among substance users and unlikely to use other drugs. Alternatively, if the factors that cause the use of anabolic steroids are similar to those associated with the use of other substances, adolescents who use anabolic steroids would be expected to report use of other drugs as well.

We administered a questionnaire based on the 1989 Secondary School Health Risk Survey and the 1990 Youth Risk Behavior Survey of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to 1881 students enrolled in compulsory health-science classes (mean [+/- SD] age, 14.9 +/- 1.0 years) in the Richmond County, Georgia, school system.

A higher percentage of boys (6.5 percent) than girls (1.9 percent, P < or = 0.001) reported using anabolic steroids without a doctor's prescription. Among ninth-grade students only, 5.4 percent of boys and 1.5 percent of girls reported using anabolic steroids (P < or = 0.001). Among users of anabolic steroids, 25 percent reported sharing needles to inject drugs. The frequency of anabolic-steroid use was significantly (P < 0.001) associated with the frequency of use in the previous 30 days of cocaine (r = 0.44), injectable drugs, alcohol (r = 0.23), marijuana (r = 0.42), cigarettes (r = 0.25), and smokeless tobacco (r = 0.40). On the basis of multiple regression analysis, the use of marijuana, shared needles, smokeless tobacco, and cocaine accounted for 33 percent of the variation in anabolic-steroid use among the ninth-grade students.

In our study, adolescent users of anabolic steroids were likely to use other drugs as well, and many were sharing needles.