Endocrine Abstracts

1% of western populations take chronic oral corticosteroids and this rises to 3% in subjects aged over 70 years old. When inhaled, topical and parenteral steroids are added to this burden, iatrogenic Cushing’s becomes a major health issue. High doses of medroxyprogesterone acetate can cause glucocorticoid effects and drug interactions may impair the metabolism of some glucocorticoids (eg fluticasone), thereby increasing their potency. Patients may develop the classical fe...

Critically ill patients are exposed to high levels of corticosteroids during their illness. While corticosteroid treatment has a modest effect on illness severity and survival dependent on the underlying diagnosis, observational and randomized data suggests that it also influences long-term neuropsychiatric outcomes. The mechanisms by which corticosteroid exposure during acute illness alters long-term brain function and neuropsychiatric risk are unknown. Because of the importa...

Endogenous Cushing’s syndrome (CS) causes a host of recognized physical and psychological complications, but the socioeconomic consequences of CS have not been as well-described. We recently conducted a comprehensive analysis of how patients’ socioeconomic factors change before diagnosis and after treatment compared to healthy controls. In a Danish nationwide cohort, patients with CS had lower rates of employment, lower income, delayed educations, and negatively affe...