Psychiatric Effects: studies have found a strong link between steroid abuse and serious adverse psychiatric symptoms, including mania, hypomania, and severe depression. Steroid users also appear to be at higher risk of suicide, especially
during withdrawal.28
Cardiovascular Effects: anecdotal evidence suggests a possible connection between steroid abuse and heart attacks in young and middle-aged bodybuilders. Steroid abuse has been tied more definitively to adverse effects on cholesterol levels, and a connection is suspected between steroid abuse and an enlarged heart. Liver Damage: The use of oral anabolic steroids has been tied to liver injury, including impaired liver functionality, cholestasis (impaired bile drainage), jaundice, an elevated risk of liver tumors and liver cancer, and peliosis hepatis (the life-threatening development of blood-filled cysts in the liver). Abnormal liver function might be reversible, but recurrent use of steroids at high doses can lead to serious liver disorders in the long term.
Harm to Reproductive System: Anabolic steroids can have significant adverse effects on the reproductive system as a result of their interference with the body's natural production of testosterone. In men, extended steroid abuse can result in hypogonadism, in which the body ceases the natural production of testosterone. Steroid abuse also can result in severe shrinkage of the testes and a reduction in
Blood Pressure, and Liver Function in Amateur Bodybuilders, 9 Int'l J. of Sports Med. 19-23 (1988).
28 Adolescents might be especially vulnerable because they are "already subject to nor surges of sex hormones during puberty, which are associated with expected, albeit sometimes problematic changes in mood and behavior." Restoring Faith in America's Pastime: Evaluati Major League Baseball's Efforts to Eradicate Steroid Use: Hearing Before the H. Comm. on Gov't Reform, 109th Cong. 145 (2005) (statement of Dr. Kirk Brower).
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