TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kische, Hanna
A1  - Hoyer, Jürgen
A1  - Pieper, Lars
A1  - Venz, John
A1  - Klotsche, Jens
A1  - März, Winfried
A1  - Koch-Gromus, Uwe
A1  - Pittrow, David
A1  - Lehnert, Hendrik
A1  - Silber, Sigmund
A1  - Stalla, Günter K.
A1  - Zeiher, Andreas M.
A1  - Wittchen, Hans-Ulrich
A1  - Haring, Robin
T1  - Testosterone is not associated with traits of optimism or pessimism : observational evidence from the prospective DETECT study
T2  - PLoS one
N2  - Background: Previous experimental research on testosterone (T) and psychological traits is inconclusive. Thus, we performed the first large-scale observational study of the association between T and dispositional optimism / pessimism.
Methods: We used prospective data from 6,493 primary-care patients (3,840 women) of the DETECT study (Diabetes Cardiovascular Risk-Evaluation: Targets and Essential Data for Commitment of Treatment), including repeated immunoassay-based measurement of serum T and optimism / pessimism assessed by the revised Life-Orientation Test (LOT-R). Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of baseline T and one-year change in T with optimism and pessimism were investigated using age- and multivariable-adjusted regression models.
Results: Cross-sectional analyses showed no association of T with optimism or pessimism in both sexes. Longitudinal analyses also showed no association of baseline T with optimism or pessimism at four-year follow-up. Multivariable analyses of total LOT-R score yielded similarly non-significant results (β-coefficient per unit change in T for men: -0.01 (95% CI: -0.24–0.22), women: 0.08 (-0.03–0.20)). Furthermore, change in T was not related to optimism or pessimism at four-year follow-up.
Conclusions: The present observational study of a large-scale prospective sample showed no association of T with optimism or pessimism. Integrating further experimental and interventional evidence from alternative methodological approaches would strengthen this conclusion and establish stronger evidence about the potential hormonal basis of psychological traits.
KW  - Testosterone
KW  - Alcohol consumption
KW  - Blood pressure
KW  - Depression
KW  - Emotions
KW  - Observational studies
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Mental health and psychiatry
Y1  - 2018
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/48426
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-484266
SN  - 1932-6203
N1  - Copyright: © 2018 Kische et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
VL  - 13
IS  - (11): e0207870
SP  - 1
EP  - 8
PB  - PLoS
CY  - Lawrence, Kan.
ER  -