Diagnosing the male steroid user: drug use, body image and disordered masculinity

As steroid use has gained prominence as a dangerous form of substance abuse, two main sets of discourses have been deployed to investigate and ameliorate this emerging public health threat. This article examines these two discursive frameworks and their constitution of the male steroid user as psychologically disordered, drawing on a range of medical and psychological literature. The first framework understands steroid use as a form of illicit drug use, and constitutes the steroid user as an antisocial and excessively masculine subject. The second locates steroid use within the field of body image disorder, producing the steroid user as a damaged and feminized male, a vivid example of masculinity in crisis. Both of these approaches tend to elide the specificity of steroid use and its associated bodily practices in their eagerness to form it into an easily comprehended entity which can be targeted by medical and legal governance.

A preliminary investigation into the relationship between anabolic-androgenic steroid use and the symptoms of reverse anorexia in both current and ex-users

RATIONALE

To establish whether the symptoms of reverse anorexia continue with the cessation of anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS) use in male body builders.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether current and ex-AAS-using body builders score higher on the modified (for reverse anorexia) eating disorders inventory (EDI) than both non-AAS-using body builders and regular aerobic exercisers.

METHODS

A random sample of regular aerobic exercisers, current, ex-, and non-AAS-using body builders were recruited from four local gyms and a syringe exchange in the Merseyside area. A total of 137 male subjects with an average age of 29 years (range 17-49 years) were recruited. Fifty subjects were classed as aerobic exercisers, 39 subjects were classed as non-AAS-using body builders, 29 subjects were current AAS users and 19 subjects were ex-AAS users. All subjects undertook an anonymous questionnaire consisting of the modified EDI, the severity of dependence scale (SDS) for both exercising and AAS use, and questions about body weight, dieting, and substance use.

RESULTS

AAS-using bodybuilders were striving towards an exaggerated mesomorphic physique. Both current and ex-AAS users had higher scores on all sections of the EDI than both groups of non-AAS users. There was a significant positive correlation between the SDS scores for AAS and scores on the EDI for current AAS users.

CONCLUSIONS

AAS use, but not body building per se, was associated with increased symptoms of reverse anorexia, and this symptomatology was higher in those who had higher scores on the SDS for AAS. It remains to be determined whether symptoms of reverse anorexia are either a cause or an effect of AAS use.

“ALLY MCBEAL VS. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER”: COMPARING MASS MEDIA, INTERPERSONAL FEEDBACK AND GENDER AS PREDICTORS OF SATISFACTION WITH BODY THINNESS AND MUSCULARITY

Susceptibility to appearance-related mass media, interpersonal feedback, and instrumentality were compared as predictors of body satisfaction and shape concerns regarding thinness and muscularity in a sample of 287 undergraduate men and women. Results indicate that both genders experience body dissatisfaction, but along different shape dimensions; susceptibility to appearance-related mass media and negative appearance-related feedback appear to operate in similar ways to affect men's and women's overall body satisfaction. Directions for additional research are discussed.