Steroid use in professional baseball runs rampant, according to former player Ken Caminiti, the National League’s MVP in l996. Recently retired home run slugger Jose Canseco echoes Caminiti’s claim. Now Congress wants to get into the act and investigate steroid use by professional and amateur athletes. What about the general population at large?

If you believe that steroid use is confined to athletes, think again. Doctors often prescribe steroids for a variety of medical reasons. Prednisolone is one of the most frequent inflammatory medications prescribed for arthritic and other similar ailments, although it doesn’t build the muscle mass as the same steroids used by athletes. However, prednisolone does have harmful side effects. Some of the most common are weight gain, mood swings, anxiety and stomach ulcers. How do I know? I have been on steroids since my kidney transplant, six months ago.

Steroids are commonly prescribed after a transplant to prevent rejection of the organ and transplant recipients may have to take them for the rest of their lives. I had never taken steroids for medical reasons and wasn’t prepared for some of the side effects, most notably anxiety and mood swings.

My immediate reaction was one of extreme restlessness, inability to sleep more than one or two hours nightly and a constant need to be doing something. I cleaned out file drawers that I hadn’t looked at in years, catalogued my extensive photo collection, dusted furniture that my wife often accused me of deliberately not seeing, sorted through piles of accumulated reference materials and generally made an e-mail nuisance of myself. Admittedly, some of this had positive results but at the expense of increased adrenaline and blood pressure.

The most significant effect was a change in my interpersonal relationships with others, particularly family members and dealings with the public at large. I became paranoiac and resented any remark that was perceived as a personal attack, no matter how innocuous.

Any apparent disagreement with something I said or wanted to do would automatically trigger an aggressive reaction on my part. Sometimes it wasn’t pleasant to be around me.

Unfortunately, those I loved the most were stuck with me. In other cases, the general public, particularly clerks or service personnel would incite my wrath with any slight breach of language that could be perceived as a personal attack.

This all came to a head during a confrontation with a mall security guard. I resented his request to move my car from a fire lane as I sat waiting for my wife to finish her shopping. I was in the wrong. I shouldn’t have parked there. However, I refused to acknowledge his authority and challenged him to move me. He got on his radio and placed a call to the police that made me come to my senses. How would I ever explain to my wife how I got arrested while she was shopping? I moved and made myself scarce for awhile.

A blowup with my older son finally convinced me that I needed help. Accompanied by my son, who gave evidence as to my behavior, I visited the doctor in charge of my after-transplant care. He heard us out and remarked that my case was unusual and he had only seen it in three out of 400 previous cases. He took immediate steps to decrease my dosage and I began acting like my pre-steroid self.

I now sleep six to seven hours nightly, don’t pick fights and maintain my weight at pre-transplant levels. One drawback, I no longer dust the furniture.