PMID:20036695

Citation	Salas-Ramirez, KY, Montalto, PR and Sisk, CL (2010) Anabolic steroids have long-lasting effects on male social behaviors. Behav. Brain Res. 208:328-35
Abstract	Anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) use by adolescents is steadily increasing. Adolescence involves remodeling of steroid-sensitive neural circuits that mediate social behaviors, and previous studies using animal models document effects of AAS on male social behaviors. The present experiments tested whether AAS have persistent and more pronounced behavioral consequences when drug exposure occurs during adolescence as compared to exposure in adulthood. Male Syrian hamsters were injected daily for 14 days with either vehicle or an AAS cocktail containing testosterone cypionate (2 mg/kg), nandrolone decanoate (2 mg/kg), and boldenone undecylenate (1 mg/kg), either during adolescence (27-41 days of age) or adulthood (63-77 days of age). As adults, subjects were tested two or four weeks after the last injection for either sexual behavior with a receptive female or male-male agonistic behavior in a resident-intruder test. Compared with vehicle-treated males, AAS-treated males, regardless of age of treatment, displayed fewer long intromissions and a significant increase in latency to the first long intromission, indicative of reduced potential to reach sexual satiety. Increased aggression was observed in males exposed to AAS compared with males treated with vehicle, independently of age of AAS treatment. However, unlike hamsters exposed to AAS in adulthood, hamsters exposed to AAS during adolescence did not display any submissive or risk-assessment behaviors up to 4 weeks after discontinuation of AAS treatment. Thus, AAS have long-lasting effects on male sexual and agonistic behaviors, with AAS exposure during adolescence resulting in a more pronounced reduction in submissive behavior compared to AAS exposure in adulthood.
Links	PubMed PMC2831157 Online version:10.1016/j.bbr.2009.11.026
Keywords	Aggression/drug effects; Anabolic Agents/pharmacology; Analysis of Variance; Animals; Animals, Newborn; Cricetinae; Female; Male; Mesocricetus; Seminal Vesicles/drug effects; Sexual Behavior, Animal/drug effects; Social Behavior; Steroids/pharmacology; Sublimation; Testis/drug effects
edit table

Annotations

Gene product	Qualifier	GO Term	Evidence Code	with/from	Aspect	Extension	Notes	Status

References

See Help:References for how to manage references in GONUTS.