Psychological effects of withdrawal of growth hormone therapy from adults with growth hormone deficiency.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over).

Growth hormone (GH) is known to be required for physical well-being.

Although it is also widely believed to be important for quality of life (QoL) and psychological health, there is less supportive evidence.

The objective of this study was to investigate the psychological effects of discontinuation of GH replacement from adults with severe GH deficiency (GHD).

Who Took Part

The study group was 10 men.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

GH-treated adults (10 men, 11 women), all with severe GHD (peak GH < 7.7 mU/l on provocative testing), mean age 44.9 years (range 25-68 years).

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Neither the men nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over), so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) group a baseline to be compared against.

Semi-structured interviews were given at baseline and end-point plus questionnaires that included a new hormone-deficiency specific, individualized, QoL questionnaire (HDQoL), the General Well-being Index (GWBI), the Well-being Questionnaire (W-BQ12), the Short-Form 36 health status questionnaire (SF-36), the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ).

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Depression, Hormone Replacement Therapy, Human Growth Hormone, Insulin-Like Growth Factor I, Interview, Psychological, Mental Fatigue and Pain.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) in 10 men.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2003 (Clinical endocrinology), a journal based in England.

More context: the Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) compound page, all human trials.