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Originally posted by Orestes:
I've been taking zoloft for about 4 months. It has a really positive effect on me so I don't think I should stop taking it. I'll probably ask my doctor what he thinks.

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Very good idea...mixing chemicals can be very dangerous.....good luck!

Anabolic Steroids and Aggressive/Psychiatric Symptoms

Enormous media attention has been focused upon the reported adverse psychiatric effects (especially violent behavior) of steroid use. "Roid rage" is the descriptive term for steroid-induced "spontaneous, highly aggressive, out-of-control behavior where the police either were called or should have intervened" (Yesalis & Cowart, p. 60). A few researchers have suggested that psychiatric symptoms including increased aggression are a common side effect of anabolic steroid use. For example, a flawed 1988 study suggested that psychiatric disorders occur with unusual frequency among athletes using anabolics (Pope & Katz, 1988, pp. 487-490). But the conclusions of these researchers have been regarded with skepticism by other experts (see, Lubell, 1989, comments of Dr. James Wright and Dr. Charles Yesalis at 178). "If this phenomenon is real, it is relatively rare (probably less than 1 percent) among steroid users. Even among those affected, the impact of previous mental illness or abuse of other drugs is still unclear" (Yesalis & Cowart, p. 60). "Some long-time steroid users have never suffered any emotional instability, or anything more than transient physical effects" and many steroid users describe non-violent feelings of euphoria, well-being and enhanced self-confidence as common effects (Wright & Cowart, p. 51). In one study to determine the psychiatric effects of steroid use on athletes, no significant differences could be found between users and non-users. "The facts that steroids have been used by tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of athletes over two decades and that behavioral effects are only recently being discovered (in small numbers) tend to support [that feelings of aggression may not be observed in the majority of steroid users]. Our findings are compatible with and complementary to those in anecdotal reports and data from individual psychiatrists" (Bahrke, et al., 1990, pp. 834-835). The researchers do not rule out, however, the possibility that in a small minority of predisposed individuals, "steroid use may be sufficient to push them over the edge and contribute to irrational or violent behavior." Many experienced steroid users have found that steroids enhance certain preexisting personality problems. Angry and combative users will become angrier and more combative; however, while normal guys will train more aggressively, they won't generally become violent.