Effects of anxiety on gonadal hormone levels and erectile dysfunction in young men / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the effects of anxiety-like behaviors on the levels of sex hormones and severity of erectile dysfunction(ED) in young men.Methods A total of 120 young men with ED,between the ages of 23 and 35 years,were prospectively studied,and all of them were the outpatients from the Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University from January 2012 to October 2013.Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) was used.According to the scores of SAS,the patients were divided into four groups.26 were rated by SAS as in the normal,36 in the mild,32 in the moderate and 26 in the severe state of anxiety.The levels of serum sex hormone (FSH,LH,PRL,T,E2) were detected by immunochemiluminometric assays.ED was assessed using the IIEF-5.Further,the responses were divided into three diagnosing groups on the basis of cutoff scores for IIEF-5.The relationship between the SAS scores of measuring anxiety,serum sex hormone levels,and the indicators for ED,Spearman rank correlations were carried out.Results Comparing with the normal control group,the levels of serum sex hormones (FSH,LH,PRL,E2) increased in other groups,but there were no significant differences (F=0.28,P=0.08 ; F=2.91,P=0.06; F=0.90,P=0.44; F=0.80,P=0.15).The levels of serum testosterone and the scores of IIEF-5 in the moderate and severe anxiety group decreased.The more severe symptoms of anxiety,the more likely that the ED would occur(x2=72.423,P=0.00),and ED was significantly positively correlated with anxiety(r=0.637,P=0.00).Testosterone played the partial intermediary role on the relationship between anxiety score and the IIEF-5 score.Conclusion Anxiety may contribute to ED through disturbing the sex hormone and lowering the level of serum testosterone.