TY - JOUR
TI - Associations of plasma testosterone with clinical manifestations in acute panic disorder
AU - Masdrakis, V.G.
AU - Papageorgiou, C.
AU - Markianos, M.
JO - Psychoneuroendocrinology
PY - 2019
VL - 101
TODO - null
SP - 216-222
PB - Elsevier Ireland Ltd
SN - 0306-4530
TODO - 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.11.017
TODO - hydrocortisone;  testosterone;  hydrocortisone;  testosterone, adult;  agoraphobia;  anxiety;  Article;  clinical article;  cognition;  comorbidity;  controlled study;  disease association;  disease exacerbation;  disease severity;  female;  Hamilton Anxiety Scale;  human;  hydrocortisone blood level;  male;  panic;  patient referral;  priority journal;  psychometry;  questionnaire;  testosterone blood level;  acute disease;  anxiety disorder;  blood;  complication;  metabolism;  panic;  pathophysiology;  procedures;  psychological rating scale;  sex factor, Acute Disease;  Adult;  Agoraphobia;  Anxiety;  Anxiety Disorders;  Comorbidity;  Female;  Humans;  Hydrocortisone;  Male;  Panic;  Panic Disorder;  Psychiatric Status Rating Scales;  Psychometrics;  Sex Factors;  Testosterone
TODO - The probable implication of testosterone in the neurobiology of anxiety disorders, and particularly panic disorder (PD), is poorly studied. We explored for potential differences concerning testosterone (T) plasma levels and the ratio testosterone/cortisol (T/C) between medication-free, consecutively-referred patients with acute exacerbation of PD comorbid with agoraphobia (PDA) (N = 40; females = 24; age = 31.4 ± 7.1 years) and healthy controls (N = 80; females = 48; matched for age). Moreover, we investigated for potential associations of T levels and T/C ratio with the severity of acute PDA psychopathology in the patients of the sample. Psychometric measures included panic attacks’ number during last three weeks (PA-21days), the Agoraphobic Cognitions Questionnaire (ACQ) and the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS). Male patients –but not female ones- demonstrated significantly lower T levels compared to controls. Moreover, in male patients, a significant inverse association emerged between T/C ratio and PA-21days, so that lower T/C ratio is associated with significantly more panic attacks. On the contrary, female patients demonstrated significant positive associations: (a) between T levels and PDA-related pathological cognitions (ACQ); (b) between the T/C ratio and both PA-21days and anxiety symptoms’ severity (HARS). The results of the study suggest that testosterone is significantly associated to the severity of clinical manifestations of acute panic disorder, although in a different fashion concerning the two genders. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd
ER -