Testosterone therapy may help elderly men with mild Alzheimer's disease


Testosterone therapy may help elderly men with mild Alzheimer's
disease
December 13, 2005
CHICAGO - Testosterone replacement therapy may help improve the
quality of
life for elderly men with mild
cases of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study posted online
today that will appear in the February 2006 print issue of Archives
of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.


"There is a compelling need for therapies that prevent, defer
the onset, slow the progression, or improve the symptoms of
Alzheimer disease (AD)," the authors provide as background
information in the article. They note that hormonal therapies have
been the focus of research attention in recent
years since male aging is
associated with a gradual progressive decline in testosterone
levels. "The gradual decline in testosterone level is associated
with decreased muscle mass and strength, osteoporosis, decreased
libido, mood alterations, and changes in cognition, conditions
that may be reversed with testosterone replacement." The authors
add that the age-related decline in testosterone is potentially
relevant to AD as previous studies have found significantly
lower concentrations of the hormone in middle-aged and elderly
men who developed AD.


Po H. Lu, Psy.D., from the David Geffen School of Medicine,
University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues conducted a
24-week, randomized study to evaluate the effects of testosterone
therapy on cognition, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and quality of
life in 16 male patients with
mild AD and 22 healthy elderly men who served as controls.

The
study participants were randomized to receive packets of gel to
apply on their skin that either contained testosterone or a
placebo. Standardized tests were administered at least twice
(baseline and end) during the study for the assessment of
cognitive functions and quality of
life.
"For the patients with AD, the testosterone-treated group had
significantly greater improvements in the scores on the caregiver
version of the quality-of-life scale," the researchers report. "No
significant treatment group differences were detected in the
cognitive scores at end of study, although numerically greater
improvement or less decline on measures of visuospatial functions
was demonstrated with testosterone treatment compared with placebo.


In the healthy control group, a nonsignificant trend toward greater
improvement in self-rated quality of life was observed in the
testosterone-treated group compared with placebo treatment. No
difference between the treatment groups was detected in the
remaining outcome measures."
"In conclusion, the present results should be considered
preliminary and do not warrant routine treatment of AD and healthy
control men with testosterone. Future studies with larger sample
sizes are needed before clinical decisions regarding testosterone
therapy can be rationally based.

For men with compromised quality
of life, as reflected on the type of measure employed in this
study, and who suffer from low serum T [testosterone] levels,
testosterone therapy may be a reasonable consideration."
JAMA and Archives Journals

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