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I have seen on the internet that prolonged steriod treatment can result in the development of steroid drug tolerance leading to decreased hormone secretion. In turn this may lead to drug dependence, as you need to keep taking that drug to keep your body to function normally.
Can steroid treatment lead to drug dependency, and if yes, how?
All classes of drugs react differently in the body. Some bind to receptors, some clean receptors, some drugs cause re-uptake inhibition in the brain, and others destroy viral and bacterial infections. Classifying drugs and how the human body would develop a tolerance to them in a post on this website would take pages upon pages to answer. When you say steroids, i'm assuming you are talking about anabolic steroids. That is the male sex hormone testosterone and its multitudes of derivatives. (DHT and non-DHT). Your body does not in fact develop a "dependance" on the drugs, rather it is a checks and balances system that your endocrine system establishes. Lets say you take a dosage of Testosterone Cypionate at 200mg a week for a 20 week interval from your G.P (common treatment for andropause). In laymans terms, your body senses the increase of testosterone and tells your Leydig Cells in the testes to stop signaling LH (responsible for testosterone production). Because it sees that there is already an abundance of the hormone. Now, once treatment stops, there are a series of protocols one could take to stimulate the natural production of testosterone again. Other forms of AAS are much harder on the HPTA than others however. (Trenbolone Acetate)
