comparison of the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in performance-enhancing drug users and nonuser bodybuilders

Objective: the present study aimed at comparing the prevalence of major psychiatric disorders including major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and generalized anxiety disorder between performance-enhancing drug users and nonuser bodybuilders. moreover, the prevalence of major psychiatric disorders in bodybuilders was also reported. method: in this study, 453 athletes were recruited from bushehr bodybuilding gyms from february to may 2015. a structured questionnaire was used to collect the participants’ information, including demographic characteristics, sports’ status and performance-enhancing drug use. according to the condition of performance-enhancing drug use, the participants were divided into current users, non-current users, and nonusers. the psychiatric status of the participants was evaluated using dsm-iv diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and schizophrenia. we also asked about the acute psychotic disturbances after using performance-enhancing drugs, alcohol use, and history of aggressive behavior in bodybuilders. data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and chi-square tests. results: prevalence of major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, generalized anxiety disorder, and the overall prevalence of psychiatric disorders in the bodybuilders was 19.7%, 3.8%, 1.5%, 16.6%, and 26.7%, respectively. after using performance-enhancing drugs, 33% of the bodybuilders had experienced acute psychological disturbances. there were no significant differences between current, non-current, and nonuser bodybuilding athletes in the measured psychiatric disorders. conclusion: prevalence of psychiatric disorders was not significantly different in performance-enhancing drug users and nonusers. thus, it can be concluded that performance-enhancing drugs do not increase the risk of psychiatric disorders in bodybuilders.