Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0917801 (insomnia)
 10,606 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Andropause, a syndrome in aging men, consists of physical, sexual, and psychologic symptoms that include weakness, fatigue, reduced muscle and bone mass, impaired hematopoiesis, oligospermia, sexual dysfunction, depression, anxiety, irritability, insomnia, memory impairment, and reduced cognitive function. Free testosterone levels begin to decline at a rate of 1% per year after age 40 years. It is estimated that 20% of men aged 60-80 years have levels below the lower limit of normal. Although the causal relationship between declining testosterone levels and development of andropause symptoms is not firmly established, administration of testosterone to this population resulted in improvements in many areas. Most studies to date focused on physical benefits of testosterone replacement and failed to assess psychologic symptoms rigorously. Preliminary data suggest that therapy may benefit elderly men with new-onset depression. Testosterone administration is not without problems, the most worrisome being the potential for increased prostate cancer risk. Despite this concern, a limited number of studies administered the hormone weekly for up to 2 years, with only mild increases in prostate-specific antigen over control values. Currently, insufficient evidence, primarily regarding psychologic safety and efficacy, exists to warrant general administration of testosterone to elderly hypogonadal men. Further clinical investigations of this therapy in men with low testosterone levels and andropause symptoms are justified and necessary.
 ...
PMID:Testosterone and andropause: the feasibility of testosterone replacement therapy in elderly men. 1045 66

In contrast to women, men do not experience a sudden cessation of gonadal function comparable to menopause. However, there is a progressive reduction in hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) function in aging men: testosterone (T) levels decline through both central (pituitary) and peripheral (testicular) mechanisms and there is a loss of the circadian rhythm of T secretion. In cohorts of men 75 years of age, mean plasma T levels are 35% lower than comparable young men, and more than 25% of men over 75 appear to be T-deficient. Such age-associated T deficiency, which has been termed 'andropause', is thought to be responsible for a variety of symptoms experienced by elderly men, such as weakness, fatigue, reduced muscle and bone mass, impaired haematopoiesis, oligospermia, sexual dysfunction, depression, anxiety, irritability, insomnia and memory impairment. However, it has been difficult to establish correlations between these symptoms and plasma T levels. Nevertheless, there is some evidence that T replacement leads to symptom relief, particularly with respect to muscle strength, bone mineral density, and haematopoiesis. Studies to date on the specific association between psychiatric symptoms, such as depressed mood, and T levels have been methodologically flawed. Overall, data suggest that although hypogonadism is not central to major depressive disorder (MDD), HPG hypofunction may have aetiological importance in mild depressive conditions, such as dysthymia.
 ...
PMID:Testosterone deficiency and mood in aging men: pathogenic and therapeutic interactions. 1258 72