Men with low testosterone are more likely to experience depression, according to a study published in the February issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archive journals.

Testosterone deficiency is a common condition in older men, occurring in about 30 percent of men older than 55.

Molly Shores, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and her colleagues at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle examined clinical records of 278 men who were more than 44 years old and had not experienced depression. The researchers then examined the relationship between testosterone level and the incidence of diagnosed depression over a two-year period.

They found that 21.7 percent of the men with testosterone deficiency were diagnosed with depression, compared to only 7.1 percent of the men without the deficiency. After adjusting for age, alcohol use disorders, prostate cancer and other medical conditions, they found that men with low testosterone levels were 4.2 times more likely to be diagnosed with depression.