Central effects of the anabolic steroid 17alpha methyltestosterone in female anxiety.

The androgen 17alpha-methyltestosterone (17alpha-meT) is one of the most commonly abused anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS). We assessed the impact of 17alpha-meT after bilateral infusion into the dorsomedial hypothalamus (DMH) in female anxiety. A paradoxical effect in Vogel conflict test (VCT) behavior was noted: while AAS infusion induced an increase in the latency to display the appetitive reaction of the task, it also increased the number of punished responses.