Is ED a cause of depression in prostate cancer patients?
Posted Jan 20 2011 12:00am
It is unlikely to come as any big surprise to the average prostate cancer patient who was potent before first-line therapy but has erectile dysfunction (ED) afterward that there might be an association between ED and depression after initial treatment for localized prostate cancer.
There is a well-established relationship between erectile dysfunction (ED) and symptoms of depression in men in general. However, some data have suggested that men with prostate cancer and ED are, in fact, less bothered by their ED than men who do not have this form of cancer.
Nelson et al. decided to clarify the situation by investigating whether there was a clear association between ED and symptoms of depression in men with prostate cancer attending their institution.
They used well-established survey tools to conduct assessments of patients’ quality-of-life, anxiety/depression, and erectile function. Patients with prostate cancer who had not ever received hormone therapy were asked to complete the study questionnaires at a single time point. The questionnaires asked patients to rate their ability to have and to maintain an erection on a scale from 1 through 5, with 5 representing the best possible erectile function.
The study data are as follows:
339 men participated in the study.
The average age of the patients was 67 ± 10 years.
The average time since diagnosis was 3.9 ± 3 years.
The mean erectile function score was 2 (indicating that patients were only able to have and maintain an erection “a little bit” of the time).
Several variables were clearly associated with symptoms of depression on univariate analysis, including …
Erectile function remained a significant predictor of depression on multivariate analysis.
The authors conclude that ED is independently associated with depressive symptoms in hormone therapy-naïve men with prostate cancer, even 4 years post-diagnosis.
As we said at the beginning, this was unlikely to come as any big surprise to hormone therapy-naïve patients who clearly lost erectile function after diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.
We should add a word of caution, however. This survey was carried out among patients managed at an institution with a specific program for penile rehabilitation after first-line treatment for prostate cancer. Could this fact have influenced the degree of importance and concern about erectile function in the men attending this institution? Possibly. In other words, the patients being seen at this institution may not represent “average” newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients.
It is unlikely to come as any big surprise to the average prostate cancer patient who was potent before first-line therapy but has erectile dysfunction (ED) afterward that there might be an association between ED and depression after initial treatment for localized prostate cancer.
There is a well-established relationship between erectile dysfunction (ED) and symptoms of depression in men in general. However, some data have suggested that men with prostate cancer and ED are, in fact, less bothered by their ED than men who do not have this form of cancer.
Nelson et al. decided to clarify the situation by investigating whether there was a clear association between ED and symptoms of depression in men with prostate cancer attending their institution.
They used well-established survey tools to conduct assessments of patients’ quality-of-life, anxiety/depression, and erectile function. Patients with prostate cancer who had not ever received hormone therapy were asked to complete the study questionnaires at a single time point. The questionnaires asked patients to rate their ability to have and to maintain an erection on a scale from 1 through 5, with 5 representing the best possible erectile function.
The study data are as follows:
The authors conclude that ED is independently associated with depressive symptoms in hormone therapy-naïve men with prostate cancer, even 4 years post-diagnosis.
As we said at the beginning, this was unlikely to come as any big surprise to hormone therapy-naïve patients who clearly lost erectile function after diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.
We should add a word of caution, however. This survey was carried out among patients managed at an institution with a specific program for penile rehabilitation after first-line treatment for prostate cancer. Could this fact have influenced the degree of importance and concern about erectile function in the men attending this institution? Possibly. In other words, the patients being seen at this institution may not represent “average” newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients.