Trial reportClinical interventions in aging2014
Cognitive effects of testosterone and finasteride administration in older hypogonadal men.
Trial report in Clinical interventions in aging, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association of Testosterone Treatment With Alleviation of Depressive Symptoms in Men: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.JAMA psychiatry · 2019Pooled it
- Low Testosterone Level and Risk of Alzheimer's Disease in the Elderly Men: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Molecular neurobiology · 2016Pooled it
- Association between finasteride with subjective memory deficits: a study from the NHANES and FAERS databases.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Article
- Local synthesis and function of neuro-estrogen and neuro-androgen: impact on the hippocampus-related cognition and neuronal plasticity.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2025Review
- Effect of High Testosterone Levels on Endothelial Function in Aorta and Erectile Function in Rats.Sexual medicine · 2022Article
- [Testosterone and Alzheimer's disease].Problemy endokrinologii · 2022Article
- Impact of Testosterone on Alzheimer's Disease.The world journal of men's health · 2022Review
- Testosterone Replacement Therapy in the Treatment of Depression.Health psychology research · 2022Article
- Testosterone Deficiency and Risk of Cognitive Disorders in Aging Males.The world journal of men's health · 2021Review
- An Updated Review: Androgens and Cognitive Impairment in Older Men.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2020Review
- Chronic Testosterone Deprivation Sensitizes the Middle-Aged Rat Brain to Damaging Effects of Testosterone Replacement.Neuroendocrinology · 2020Article
- Testosterone Supplementation and Cognitive Functioning in Men-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of the Endocrine Society · 2019Article
- Therapist-Assisted Progressive Resistance Training, Protein Supplements, and Testosterone Injections in Frail Older Men with Testosterone Deficiency: Protocol for a Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2018Article
- High Prevalence of Low Serum Biologically Active Testosterone in Older Male Veterans.Journal of the American Medical Directors Association · 2017Article
- Article
- The rate of change in declining steroid hormones: a new parameter of healthy aging in men?Oncotarget · 2016Article
- On model selections for repeated measurement data in clinical studies.Statistics in medicine · 2015Article
- Hormonal determinants of the severity of andropausal and depressive symptoms in middle-aged and elderly men with prediabetes.Clinical interventions in aging · 2015Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Serum concentrations of neuroactive androgens decline in older men and, in some studies, low testosterone is associated with decreased cognitive function and incidence of depression. Existing studies evaluating the effect of testosterone administration on cognition in older men have been largely inconclusive, with some studies reporting minor to moderate cognitive benefit, while others indicate no cognitive effect. Our objective was to assess the cognitive effects of treating older hypogonadal men for 1 year with a supraphysiological dose of testosterone, either alone or in combination with finasteride (a type II 5α-reductase inhibitor), in order to determine whether testosterone produces cognitive benefit and whether suppressed dihydrotestosterone influences cognition. Sixty men aged ≥ 60 years with a serum testosterone concentration of ≤ 300 ng/dL or bioavailable testosterone ≤ 70 ng/dL and no evidence of cognitive impairment received testosterone-enanthate (125 mg/week) versus vehicle, paired with finasteride (5 mg/day) versus placebo using a 2×2 factorial design. Testosterone caused a small decrease in depressive symptoms as assessed by the Geriatric Depression Scale and a moderate increase in visuospatial memory as assessed by performance on a recall trial of the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test. Finasteride caused a small increase in performance on the Benton Judgment of Line Orientation test. In total, major improvements in cognition were not observed either with testosterone or finasteride. Further studies are warranted to determine if testosterone replacement may improve cognition in other domains.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.