DRUG ALCOHOL DEPEN：长期使用同化激素或可破坏大脑空间认知功能

　　来自美国麦克林医院（McLean Hospital）和哈佛医学院（Harvard Medical School）的医生们近日表示，长期使用同化激素（以下简称“AAS”）可严重影响使用者对物体形态和空间关系的正确记忆。同时，医生们还采用了多种测试，以决定激素使用者的认知缺陷是否由于他们滥用药物所致。

　　据了解，实验对象的年龄为29岁至55岁，平均使用激素药物的时间是7年。每一位受试者都必须完成五项范围宽广的针对大脑功能的认知测试，其中包括物体外形和地点的记忆力，单词列表记忆力，反应时间，注意力集中能力以及信息处理速度。

　　研究员哈里森-蒲柏（Harrison Pope）和他的同事发现，长期使用AAS的受试者在一项称之为结构认知记忆力（Pattern Recognition Memory）的测试中，其表现比非激素使用者差劲很多。并且，受试者使用激素的时间越长，测试得分就越低。重要的是，在为了求证是否有其他因素的敏感度分析中，测试结果仍较稳定，充分表明除了使用AAS，没有其他因素能影响受试者的测试结果。

　　据蒲柏称，激素使用者的视觉空间缺陷同痴呆症老人的病症十分相似，他说：“我们的研究结果十分令人震惊，希望这能引起更大的研究，并且越来越多的人能关注使用甚至滥用AAS所带来的潜在危险。”

Millions of individuals worldwide have used anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) to gain muscle or improve athletic performance. Recently, in vitro investigations have suggested that supraphysiologic AAS doses cause apoptosis of neuronal cells. These findings raise the possibility, apparently still untested, that humans using high-dose AAS might eventually develop cognitive deficits.

Methods

We administered five cognitive tests from the computerized CANTAB battery (Pattern Recognition Memory, Verbal Recognition Memory, Paired Associates Learning, Choice Reaction Time, and Rapid Visual Information Processing) to 31 male AAS users and 13 non-AAS-using weightlifters age 29–55, recruited and studied in May 2012 in Middlesbrough, UK. Testers were blinded to participants’ AAS status and other historical data.

Results

Long-term AAS users showed no significant differences from nonusers on measures of response speed, sustained attention, and verbal memory. On visuospatial memory, however, AAS users performed significantly more poorly than nonusers, and within the user group, visuospatial performance showed a significant negative correlation with total lifetime AAS dose. These were large effects: on Pattern Recognition Memory, long-term AAS users underperformed nonusers by almost one standard deviation, based on normative population scores (adjusted mean difference in z-scores = 0.89; p = 0.036), and performance on this test declined markedly with increasing lifetime AAS dose (adjusted change in z-score = −0.13 per 100 g of lifetime AAS dose; p = 0.002). These results remained stable in sensitivity analyses addressing potential confounding factors.

Conclusions