Anabolic Steroid Abuse, the Self-Administration of Hormones Such as Testosterone

question 48

Multiple Choice

Anabolic steroid abuse, the self-administration of hormones such as testosterone for body building or other nonmedical uses, is an increasing concern in society. A study of the effects of added testosterone on behavior yielded the data shown below. They are from the responses to testosterone treatment based on a scale of manic (excited or irritable) behavior for six adult males. Black bars indicate testosterone administration time and white bars indicate placebo administration time. The asterisk for the first subject indicates discontinuation of testosterone treatment after week 5 because of rapidly escalating manic symptoms.
Source: Pople, H. G., Kouri, E. M., & Hudson, J. I. (2000) . Effects of supraphysiologic doses of testosterone on mood and aggression in normal men: a randomized controlled trial. Archives of general psychiatry, 57(2) : 133-140.
-What could reasonably be concluded from these data?

• A) All men given extra testosterone exhibit significant manic behavior.
• B) Not all men respond similarly to the administration of extra testosterone.
• C) People who already have high levels of testosterone have a lower response to additional testosterone.
• D) Testosterone levels are higher in people who are manic

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Definitions:

Interaction Term

An interaction term in statistics is a variable created from the product of two or more variables to capture the effect of their interaction on a dependent variable.

Dependent Variable

A variable in an experiment that is affected by changes in the independent variable.

Influenced

Refers to being affected or altered by an external factor or variable.

Sample Regression Line

This is the line obtained from the regression analysis of sample data, used to predict the dependent variable values from the independent variable.