Many of the people who use anabolic steroids as a performance-enhancing drug claim that steroids is not physically or mentally addictive, yet a research study conducted at the University of Southern California found that hamsters exposed to steroids over a period of time demonstrated addictive behavior toward steroids.

Lead researcher Ruth Wood, PhD, who is also professor of Cell and Neurobiology at the USC said that most people who use anabolic steroids to enhance their physical performance or to build muscle mass deny that steroids may be addictive. She added that unlike other commonly abused drugs which are mostly used to get high, anabolic steroids is used to increase muscle mass and achieve enhanced athletic performance. Because of the complex motivations involved in the use of steroids, Wood said that it was difficult to determine whether anabolic steroids have addictive properties in humans. Their goal in conducting the study was to create an experimental model of addiction where reinforcing effects such as athletic performance are made irrelevant.

According to the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology’s annual conference news release, Wood’s study was one of the first to study the addictive potential of anabolic steroids. The study was modeled after previous well-established methods for studying highly addictive drugs such as heroin and cocaine.

In the study, the hamsters were implanted with small cannulas for making them able to administer steroids into their brains by themselves. The hamsters were then made to spend four hours a day in a chamber where there was access to two delivery mechanisms for the steroids. Whenever a hamster operated the active delivery mechanism, it received one microgram of testosterone or one of the following commonly abused steroids: drostanolone, nandrolone, oxymetholone, and stanozolol. The inactive mechanism was made to produce no response. A computer logged the number of times that each hamster used the active and inactive delivery mechanisms. At the end of the study, the hamsters showed a marked preference for testosterone, drostanolone, and nandrolone, using the active delivery system twice as often as the inactive one. The study showed that not all kinds of steroids were rewarding for the hamsters are they did not voluntary inject the weaker form of steroids, oxymetholone and stanozolol. The researchers isolated the hamsters to remove the possibility that their decision to administer the steroids would be affected by any behavioral or social factors.

Ruth Wood said that it was clear in the study that the hamsters perceive the steroids to be rewarding and thus took them twice more than the control. This preference is able to demonstrate that there is a potential for forming an addiction to steroids. Wood further explained that steroid users feel better when they are on the drugs than they do when they are off them. The findings show that anabolic steroids do have the potential to be addictive, said Wood, adding that athletes and coaches should be made aware of this potential and include this to the list of dangers associated with the illicit use of anabolic steroids.

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