Anabolic Steroids May Help Dialysis Patients Fight Fatigue And Gain Lean...( Patients with kidney disease frequent...),Health

Patients with kidney disease frequently experience malnutrition and an accompanying loss of muscle mass as a result of their illness and its lifesaving treatment called dialysis. These negative side effects are particularly concerning because they have been associated with increased mortality. However, a new study indicates that the use of anabolic steroids appears to increase lean body mass and significantly reduce fatigue (another common side effect) in kidney disease patients receiving dialysis.

A team of University of California San Francisco researchers, led by Kirsten L. Johansen, M.D., UCSF assistant professor of medicine, epidemiology & biostatistics, studied a group of patients who were receiving dialysis and were suffering from malnutrition.

In a randomized, double blind trial, 29 patients were given either the anabolic steroid nandrolone decanote or a placebo (dummy medication) for a six-month period. All of the patients were receiving dialysis treatments at San Francisco General Hospital. At the end of the trial, patients receiving the anabolic steroid gained an average of 5.7 pounds more lean body mass than the patients who got the placebo. Also, the patients who received the steroid reported less fatigue and scored better on physical performance tests. The researchers' results are published in the April 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Hemodialysis, the most common form of dialysis in the United States, is a medical procedure employed when a patient's kidneys cannot properly clean the blood of toxins and waste products. A patient's blood is removed from the body via a tube inserted in a vein, filtered by a dialysis machine, and then replaced. Typically, this process must be repeated three times a week and takes three to four hours. In some cases, dialysis is considered a "bridge" while the patient is awaiting a kidney transplant - which can be up to a three year wait in the US. However for s
'"/>

Contact: James Larkin
jlarkin@pubaff.ucsf.edu
415-750-6633
University of California - San Francisco
14-Apr-1999