Differences in major depressive disorder and generalised anxiety disorder symptomatology between prostate cancer patients receiving hormone therapy and those who are not. By Sharpley et al. 2014
Key sentence from the paper: “…patients who were currently receiving HT [hormone therapy] were significantly more anxious and depressed than those who were not currently on HT or patients who had previously received HT but who were no longer receiving [it].”
For the full abstract, see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24789575
Commentary: For many patients on ADT, there is nothing here that is surprising. This is not the first paper that reports patients on ADT have significantly higher levels of overall anxiety and depression than patients who are not receiving ADT. Admittedly though, not all papers that explore relationship between ADT and mood have reached that conclusion. The authors explore here the idea that differences between individual studies may relate to differences in the questionnaires that were used to diagnose symptoms of either anxiety or depression.
Clearly not all patients on ADT become anxious or depressed. But if you are a patient on these drugs and are feeling stressed out, we recommend that you talk to your physician or take some action to alleviate your distress. There is no health benefit for enduring anxiety or depression while on ADT.
Sharpley CF, Bitsika V, Wootten AC, Christie DR. 2014. Differences in major depressive disorder and generalised anxiety disorder symptomatology between prostate cancer patients receiving hormone therapy and those who are not. Psychooncology. 30 April 2014 [Epub ahead of print]