Is the relationship, if present, confounded by polypharmacy?
(use of many drugs, including street drugs like) • Dr. Karch’s response, “OF COURSE,” was brief, to the point and accurate. AAS may act as neurosteroids and affect certain pathways directly or in a permissive manner. Compound the potential mood-altering effect with the sedatives, alcohol, stimulants or other drugs and the situation becomes unpredictable. This coincides with Professor Thiblin’s observations, “Indeed. Multiple substance abuse, both chronic and acute, is present in the vast majority of the case that we have seen, which is cases of either violent crime or premature death.” If surveys are correct, estimating several million current and former users of anabolic steroids, with 3 percent to 7 percent of high school seniors having been exposed to the drugs, what can be said about the paucity of anabolic steroid-related violent crime? • Dr. Karch raised the point that AAS-related violent crime may be unrecognized or not reported. In part, he notes that prisoners are not screened
