Does ADT increase a man’s risk of falling?

Standard ADT with LHRH agonists or antagonists increase the risk of osteoporosis, which in turn increases the risk of breaking a bone, should one happen to fall. But is ADT itself associated with a risk of falling? The article says “yes”. The conclusion is reached from retrospective data on 866 Taiwanese patients on ADT and 882 matched controls not on ADT. ADT nearly doubled the risk of falls.

The authors gave a long list of factors that could account for this increased risk; e.g., cognitive impairment, anemia, sarcopenia. All may contribute one way or another to the increase risk of a fall.

 

Wu CT, Yang YH, Chen PC, Chen MF, Chen WC. 2015. Androgen deprivation increases the risk of fracture in prostate cancer patients: a population-based study in Chinese patients. Osteoporos Int 26(9):2281-2290. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25990353