Increased premature mortality of competitive powerlifters suspected to have used anabolic agents

Misuse of supraphysiological doses of anabolic steroids is claimed to have serious side effects. The aim of the study was to determine the mortality, and the cause of premature deaths among a group of subjects who are strongl y suspected to have used anabolic steroids for a non-medical purpose over s everal years. The mortality of 62 male powerlifters placed 1st-5th in weigh t series 82.5-125 kg in Finnish championships during 1977-1982 was compared with the mortality of population controls. The mortality during the 12-yea r follow-up was 12.9% for the powerlifters compared to 3.1% in the control population. By 1993 eight of 62 powerlifters and 34 of 1094 population cont rols had died, thus the risk of death among the powerlifters was 4.6 timer higher (95% CI 2.04-10.45; p = 0.0002). The causes of premature death among the powerlifters were suicide (3), acute myocardial infarction (3), hepati c coma (1) and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (1). These findings add to the growin g amount of evidence of an association between anabolic steroid abuse and p remature death, and support the view that measures to decrease AAS misuse a mong both competitive and amateur athletes are justified.