Sex hormones and alcohol withdrawal: Does a good supply of testosterone prevent serious symptoms during detoxification?

Abstract

Owing to the clinical similarity between the male climacteric syndrome and the results of previous studies on the alcohol withdrawal syndrome in relation to sex hormones, we hypothesized that alcoholics with a poor supply of testosterone will develop more pronounced symptoms during alcohol withdrawal than alcoholics with high levels of testosterone. Fifty-two male alcoholics were studied. To test our hypothesis we entered the mean values of the hormones, the mean age, and the mean consumption of liquor (CL) the week before admittance as regressors in a multiple forward stepwise regression analysis with four subclass constructed from the CPRS as dependent variables. Our results indicate that patients with low levels of testosterone develop more neurotic-asthenic symptoms, such as indecision, worrying about trifles, fatigability, and lassitude during alcohol withdrawal. Further, high levels of SHBG were related to a history of seizures and younger alcoholics received higher ratings on the paranoid-aggressive subscale. It is concluded that there is a relation between levels of testosterone and symptoms during alcohol withdrawal. The question of a causal relationship remains to be answered, however. One way to illuminate this would be to add testosterone during detoxification, which may reduce the symptoms mentioned above analogous to the male climacteric syndrome, which could be prosperously treated by a supplement of testosterone. This treatment strategy would have obvious advantages compared to benzodiazepine detoxification as such drugs are potentially addictive.