Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Klinefelter syndrome (KS) is associated with increased risk of psychiatric disease and behavioral problems, as well as social problems. The background for these risks is not known.

Aim: The aim was to describe the cognitive function, personality traits and the vulnerability to psychiatric symptoms in patients with KS.

Methods: Fourty one KS patients and 41 age- and educational-matched control subjects participated in the study. 30 (73%) KS patients received testosterone treatment. All participants were tested with standardized neuropsychological tests and 4 questionnaires investigating psychological problems.

Result: KS patients scored significantly lower in processing speed, working memory, verbal abilities and showed a selective deficit in executive function compared to control subjects, whereas visual cognitive abilities and cognitive response inhibition was preserved. The KS patients displayed significantly higher levels of cognitive failures, emotional distress and autism traits as reported in questionnaires. Furthermore symptoms of anxiety were also significantly higher among KS patients, whereas there were no difference in depressive symptoms between KS patients and control subjects. On the NEO PI-R personality test KS patients scored high on the neuroticism scale, low on the extraversion scale and low on the conscientiousness scale. We could not discriminate between those KS receiving testosterone supplementation or those who did not, which is likely due to a small sample size.

Conclusion: Men with KS have deficits in several cognitive domains and have an altered personality phenotype. Furthermore our results suggest that KS may be associated with an increased vulnerability to psychiatric symptoms. In future analyses, we are going to assess the neuroanatomical, neurofunctional, endocrine and genetic basis for the cognitive deficits, altered personality phenotype and increased psychiatric symptoms seen in KS patients. Whether testosterone therapy or other interventions can alleviate these deficits remain to be proven.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This work was supported, however funding details unavailable.