CLINICAL STUDY Growth hormone deficiency in pituitary disease: relationship to depression, apathy and somatic complaints

Objective: Adults with GH deficiency (GHD) have been reported to suffer from increased levels of depression and apathy, which are thought to contribute to the reduced quality of life observed in these patients when compared with healthy controls. Recent studies, however, cast doubt on the attri-bution of these impairments to GHD as opposed to an unspecific stress response to the chronic medical condition. Design: To further clarify this relationship, we used psychometric tests to quantify depression, apathy and typical psychosomatic complaints in patients with different types of pituitary disease and com-pared the results with measurements of the patients ’ widely varying GH status. Subjects and methods: In 98 patients, serum IGF-I was measured and at least one provocative test of the somatotrope pituitary axis was performed (GH-releasing hormone test (GHRHT) and/or insulin toler-ance test (ITT)). All patients completed a set of well-established psychometric instruments (Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Apathy Evaluation Scale (AS) and List of Somatic Complaints (LSC)). In addition, AS was administered in an informant report version for completion by a close relative or friend to verify the validity of the patient’s self assessment