• Arun Rajagopal, Rena Vassilopoulou-Sellin, J Lynn Palmer, Guddi Kaur, and Eduardo Bruera.
• Section of Cancer Pain Management, Department of Anesthesiology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. arajagop@mdanderson.org
• Cancer. 2004 Feb 15;100(4):851-8.

BackgroundProfound hypogonadism has been noted in patients receiving intrathecal opioids. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether chronic consumption of oral opioids by male survivors of cancer also would lead to central hypogonadism and whether this hypogonadism was associated with symptoms of sexual dysfunction, fatigue, anxiety, and depression.MethodsA case-control study was conducted at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX), in which 20 patients who were chronically consuming opioids were compared with 20 matched controls. Patients completed the Sexual Desire Inventory (SDI), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy with general and fatigue subscales (FACT-G/FACIT-F), and the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) questionnaires. Serum samples were collected for testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), and luteinizing hormone (LH).ResultsComparing the opioid group with the control group, 18 of the 20 patients (90%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 65-98%) exhibited hypogonadism, compared with 8 of the 20 control patients (40%; 95% CI, 19-64%). The median testosterone level was 145 ng/dL versus 399.5 ng/dL (5.0 nmol/L vs. 13.9 nmol/L; P < 0.0001), the median FSH level was 2.85 milli-International Units (mIU)/mL versus 5.3 mIU/mL (P = 0.08), the median LH level was 1.8 mIU/mL versus 4.2 mIU/mL (P = 0.0014), the median SDI-dyadic score was 18.5 versus 40 (P = 0.01), the median SDI-solitary score was 0 versus 5 (P = 0.007), the HADS (anxiety) score was 8.5 versus 5.5 (P = 0.053), the HADS (depression) score was 7.5 versus 1.5 (P = 0.0002), the FACT-G score was 64 versus 96.3 (P = 0.0001), and the FACIT-F score was 24 versus 46 (P = 0.0003).ConclusionsSurvivors of cancer who chronically consumed opioids experienced symptomatic hypogonadism with significantly higher levels of depression, fatigue, and sexual dysfunction. With the increasing use of opioids among patients with cancer, further research in improving quality-of-life outcomes is warranted.Copyright 2004 American Cancer Society.

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