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Murders associated with anabolic steroid use in Sydney

Case 1

A 29-year-old male body builder bashed his wife to death by repeatedly hitting her with a claw hammer while his four children were in the house. He then shot himself through the head. His home life had apparently been happy up to this time and he was not known to be aggressive.

He had been an anabolic steroid abuser for some years on and off, and in the seven weeks before the murder had self-injected 13.75 mL of stanozolol and at least 1 mL of testosterone (Sustanon, Organon).

Urine tests showed a strongly positive result for stanozolol (1360 ng/mL) and a testosterone : epitestosterone ratio of 17 (normal ratio, one; six is considered the upper level allowable for sports drug testing). This high level indicated testosterone abuse also. His urine also showed evidence of diazepam, but was otherwise normal.

There is little doubt that this behaviour fits the features of a steroid rage.

Case 2

A 22-year-old body builder murdered a woman by first repeatedly bashing her head against a wall and then kicking her. He showed no evident remorse and drove home to bed.

He had previously taken an eight-week course of 50 mg nandrolone (Deca-durabolin, Organon) per week given to him by a friend and felt "heaps more energy, crankier, more aggression, increased libido and more uptight". He stopped taking the drug for about two months, and then took nandrolone for three weeks before the murder -- about 1.7 mL per week of a veterinary preparation (50 mg/mL) by intramuscular injection. He came from an apparently caring family, had not previously used any drugs, and had never been known to be violent. His urine was positive for nandrolone but was otherwise normal. He had drunk about three litres of beer in the three hours before the murder.

This behaviour also suggests a steroid rage with its severe degree of violence and indifference. However, if this is so, it would be the smallest dose yet recorded for a steroid rage.


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