ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 5, 1996 TAG: 9607050095
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BOSTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Body builders already believe it, and science has finally proved it: Steroids make big muscles. But researchers found no evidence that steroids make users prone to outbursts of anger known as ``'roid rage.''
The carefully controlled study showed convincingly for the first time that a few weeks of male sex hormone injections substantially beef up arms and legs and increase strength.
Men who exercised and took steroids for 10 weeks put on an average of 13 pounds of virtually pure muscle and could bench press an extra 48 pounds.
In addition, psychological tests and questioning of the men's spouses found no evidence that steroids made them angrier or more aggressive.
Steroids are widely thought to cause extreme mood swings, and people charged with violent crimes have pleaded 'roid rage as a defense.
But among steroid users who are mentally healthy, ``testosterone doesn't turn men into beasts,'' said Dr. Shalender Bhasin of Charles R. Drew University in Los Angeles. Bhasin left open the possibility that in people who are mentally unbalanced to begin with, steroids can make them worse.
Bhasin and his colleagues suggest steroids might be a good way to help AIDS patients and others whose muscles waste away because of disease.
LENGTH: Short : 37 linesby CNB