According to researchers, the use of steroids is not necessary to be greatly concerned with leanness and muscularity.

There is no difference between bodybuilders who make use of steroids and those who do not use them when it comes to features associated with muscle dysmorphia, according to Timothy Baghurst, a visiting assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of Arkansas. The second author of this concerned article is Daniel Kissinger, an assistant professor of counselor education.

Muscle dysmorphia is considered to be a disorder in which an individual is too obsessed with the thought that he does not have a muscular body though he has a solid and muscular body.

From Timesofindia.indiatimes.com:

Kissinger said: “One of the problems associated with classifying muscular dysmorphia is that, while it is receiving increasing attention in the mental health literature, muscle dysmorphia is not recognized by the American Psychological Association as a distinct mental illness.”

Baghurst divided bodybuilders into sub-groups of “natural” and “non-natural”. Natural bodybuilding referred to competitions in which partakers were drug-tested, and had to pass a polygraph in relation to their lack of prohibited drug use.

Non-natural bodybuilding referred to those competitions in which participants were not required to pass a polygraph, nor were they drug tested before the to competition.

Baghurst discovered: “By separating natural and non-natural bodybuilders, I found that either group is equally likely to have all of the traits of muscle dysmorphia with the exception of pharmacological use.”

He further found the males who were pumping iron to enhance their physique, but were not bodybuilders, also bared few characteristics linked with muscle dysmorphia including dissatisfaction with their size and symmetry.

Baghurst was of the view that this is an important finding as it demonstrates that some one does not need to be big to have issues concerning his muscularity or body fat.