Parkinsons

Testosterone Boost May Help Some with Parkinson’s Tue Nov 26,10:46 AM ET By Alison McCook

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Giving extra testosterone to Parkinson’s disease (news - web sites) patients with low levels of the hormone seems to curb some symptoms of the disease, according to preliminary study findings. However, lead author Dr. Michael S. Okun of the University of Florida in Gainesville stressed to Reuters Health that the study did not compare these patients to a similar group given an inactive drug. Consequently, he explained, the results could stem from the so-called “”placebo effect,”" when people on an inactive drug or therapy show an improvement in their symptoms. In order to understand the benefits of a new drug, researchers need to compare it to placebo to gauge the therapy’s true benefit, he said. Nevertheless, the new findings suggest that testosterone may hold promise for these patients, he added. In the current study, published in the November issue of the Archives of Neurology, Okun and his team found that patients given testosterone lost an average of two non-movement related symptoms often seen in men with reduced testosterone levels and Parkinson’s disease. These symptoms include fatigue, energy problems, sexual dysfunction and depression, Okun told Reuters Health. The findings from the current study are bolstered by previous research, which has shown that older men with similar symptoms as a result of a marked drop in testosterone also benefit from supplementation with the hormone. Whether or not these results also apply to men with low testosterone and Parkinson’s had been unclear, the authors note. Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurological disorder marked by the loss of brain cells that produce dopamine, a chemical key in controlling muscle activity. Some of the classic, movement-related symptoms of Parkinson’s disease include tremor, muscle rigidity and sluggish movements. During the study, Okun and his team gave 10 men with Parkinson’s and low testosterone levels a testosterone gel to rub on the skin of the shoulders, chest, and abdomen once daily, and followed patients for 1 month. The researchers followed 6 of the patients for 2 additional months. Okun and his team found that patients’ testosterone levels increased after using the gel. They also showed an average of six symptoms related to testosterone deficiency at one and three months after starting therapy, a drop from the previous average of eight. In an interview with Reuters Health, Okun cautioned that extra testosterone can worsen congestive heart failure, cause a rash and exacerbate sleeping problems such as sleep apnea, in which people temporarily stop breathing during sleep. “”But under a doctor’s supervision, it’s safe for a vast majority of people,”" he noted. The next step, Okun added, is to determine whether patients with Parkinson’s are more likely to have low levels of testosterone than similarly aged men without the disease. Additional research is also needed to compare people given testosterone gel to those given an inactive gel, to determine the role of the placebo effect in these findings, the researcher said. “”We really think this has implications, so we’re following it up,”" Okun said. SOURCE: Archives of Neurology 2002;59:1750-1753.

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