androgen blockade and brain function

Hobbies, talking to friends and families, reading, exercise....do what you enjoy doing...

I would also love to know if anyone can point to any credible research from the medical community on the effects hormones have on cognitive function and mood...

Jaxum,

I've tried a number of things to try to offset the cognitive symptoms. As well as making me dumb as a post ADT tends to make me a bit depressed so that is factored into my decisions. I started with fluoxitine (Prozac) which helped with the depression and seemed to help a bit with mental acuity. (It also helps with hot flashes, I am told, although they have been few for me.) But the fluoxitine was a bit sedating so I looked for a complementary drug to pick up a few more neurotransmitters (on the theory that I was long on serotonin and short on dopamine) so I tried, first, modafinil (Provigil) which worked well for me but was too expensive and then buproprion (Welbutrin) which also works (although more slowly).

And with that plus exercise (and my incessant complaining here on the forum so I can vent) I am doing OK.

T (or lack thereof) affect your mental agility! Google hypogonadism and T

I just received my latest blood work results, and the winner is...........................
PSA has climbed up from 7.8 to 12 in just two months while on Lupron and Casodex
yeaa , I am toast......
PSA is rising despite being on androgen blockade...
I have doctor appointment this Friday and will see what he suggest
my guess is another Lupron shot, but my testosterone is only 7 right now
so I don't know what to do, I don't feel very good or encouraged right now...
I need your help...
thanks
jack

Hang in there Jack and once you speak to your Dr. hopefully the two of you will come up with a game plan. I know it is discouraging, but there are a lot more options out there for you. If needed get a second opinion.Keep us posted.
Michael

Jaxum,

I would love a fix, I find that my short term memory is now absolutely hopeless, You can tell me something and in less than 5 minutes I have completely forgotten. My long term memory is not effected. But certainly my thinking has slowed down.
In an attempt to keep my mind ticking over I regularily do Sudoko and word puzzles. I find these keep my brain active.
But for me short term memory can be a real problem at work and I constantly have to write things down, but , then I forget to look at my list !
My PSA is also steadily rising, my January reading is 21.5, we are looking at the options.

Jack
You might ask about dropping the casodex. It worked on me for 15 months. Provenge is worth looking into also. I have 1 cycle in&2 to go. I know how you feel. WE ARE NOT TOAST!!!

My husband is now at the point where he finally needs to make THE decision on what path he will follow, RT/HT being the obvious choice. However, of all the SE that may occur as a result of HT, the one he fears the most is anything that may affect his mind, no matter how temporary.

I am glad to see that there are some things that some of you have done to try to improve the situation and I will keep these suggestions in mind.

Thanks for the update peter unfortunately here in canuck land even when some thing goes generic there's not a major savings. I taught modafinil was the generic form??

Gess I could drive to Calgary only a 13 hour drive round trip

Besides I don't have a member ship,where I live you have to drive 200 km just to your urologist and 1000 for my oncologist. But thanks
French..tralveller appreciate the info. Nice to see hobbies scans still negative.

We have found that it is well worth the Costco membership (in Canada) to benefit from Costco's excellent pricing on all the drugs my hubbie takes (and he takes lots of them for his heart condition).

And I do not work or have any financial relationship with Costco...except I spend too much money there

I just finished 40 IMRT sessions and am half-way through a 6-months course of Lupron, following a November 2015 recurrence of PCa, 7 years post-op (2008). Gleason 4+5=9, small tumor load and contained. My PSA remained <0.01 for over three years then bubbled up and down in a range of 0.03-0.06 for a couple of years and in November got linear in the wrong direction. My wife said when it clicked to 0.1 we were pulling the trigger on ADT and IMRT. The standard is not to do that until 0.2 or 0.4. but she felt that a Gleason 9 is a totally different animal and not one that allows the luxury of time. By the time we had a radiation oncologist identified and consulted. my PSA was 0.12 and the day before radiation started three weeks later, 0.15

I still work full-time at 78 managing my wife's very busy clinical research practice. I had no particular side effects from radiation, other than fatigue---but at 78 you are entitled to fatigue. I cut my work day from 9 hours a day to 6. (What can she do? Fire me?) Of course, the daily radiation session messed up the work day in any case.

But Lupron is another issue. The occasional hot flashes (mostly late or at night) are more annoying than distressing. I ignore them. The real problem is cognitive. My never-great memory took a real hit. If I put my iPhone down I immediately forgot where I put it. Burned out the coffee maker two weeks ago by forgetting to add the water. Went to pull out the kitchen garbage drawer and yanked on the dishwasher handle instead. Doing payroll, banking and emails takes three times as long because I need to check my work again and again.

BUT SOME RELIEF:

I said to my dear wife/doc that it was getting so distressing and concerning that I no longer trusted myself to do the work. She had a phone chat with my great radiation oncologist and suggested to her that a starter dose of controlled release Ritalin ER might be useful (my wife is a shrink). They agreed. I have been on it for two weeks and feel a lot "sharper." Yes, I still misplace the phone and use an Apple watch to find it, but the Ritalin has really helped.

Beyond that, for someone who has NEVER exercised EVER and who still believes that a quarterback is a tax refund, my new, three-months-old habit of an hour of daily exercise --plus portion control--has been very helpful. I dropped 15 pounds I didn't need and the fatigue factor has greatly diminished. Amazing how you can change your ways if you get scared enough :)