The First Placebo-Controlled
Anabolic Steroid/HIV Study
by Michael Mooney
November 1996

Vancouver XI International Conference on AIDS - On July 9, 1996 Dr. Gary Bucher of Chicago's Center for Special Immunology presented the first placebo controlled study of the anabolic steroid nandrolone decanoate (Deca Durabolin) with 70 HIV patients over 12 weeks. Results showed why steroids are valuable for wasting therapy and supported the assertion that anabolic steroids are not immuno-suppressive, but do potentiate important barometers of immune competence. There was a significant increase in lean body mass, even though there was no specific weight training protocol, and we know that steroids exert their greatest effect when weight training is employed. There was a significant increase in CD8+ t-cells of an average of 150 points. This is important because CD8+'s appear to be much more correlative with survival than CD4+'s.(1) Although there was not what is considered to be a "statistically significant" change in CD4+ count, there was no negative effect, and the trend line was moving up ever so slightly. There was no statistically significant change in viral load, but the trend line was moving down slightly. Hematocrit increased significantly.

Comment: I consider the dosage used in this study to be rather low at 100 mg of nandrolone decanoate per week. I would expect the same trends to be exhibited with higher doses, but to a greater degree, perhaps with the CD4+ trend and the viral load trend reaching statistical significance. Higher doses will be employed in several anabolic steroid studies to be concluded this year and two of the forthcoming studies will employ weight-training, which should result in even more impressive lean body mass increases.

1. Schlumpberger JM, Wolde-Tsadik G, Yao JFF, Hara J. CD8+ lymphocyte counts and the risk of death in advanced HIV infection. J of Family Practice 1994;38,1(Jan):33-38.

New England Journal of Medicine Testosterone Study
Notably, the first controlled study on high dose testosterone supplementation with normal non-HIV men was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on July 4, 1996 (Bhasin et al). In this study they used 600 mg per week of testosterone enanthate for ten weeks, and controlled for weight training. Those who were given testosterone but didn't lift weights at all gained more muscle than those who trained with weights but were not given testosterone. Those who lifted weights and were given testosterone gained over 13 pounds and experienced significant increases in basic strength exercises like the squat and bench press. The testosterone had no effect on mood or behavior (no "roid rage").

Comment: What's important about this study is that until now the position of the conservative medical community was that anabolic steroids haven't been shown to increase lean body mass or strength and shouldn't necessarily be used for things like HIV-associated wasting. This study makes obvious the fact that anabolic steroids do increase lean body mass and that supraphysiologic (higher) doses work better than the lower doses that were used in previous studies (ie...100 mg per week).