Testosterone and disinhibited personality in healthy males

Abstract

The relationship among testosterone (T), free testosterone (FT), bioavailable testosterone (BT) and personality were studied in a sample of 105 healthy males (26.71 ± 9.68 years old). The possible effects of age and other hormones, such as luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), and albumin (ALB) were controlled. Personality was assessed by the novelty seeking scale of Cloninger's Temperament-Character Inventory (TCI), and a reduced version of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ). Main results show that there is a weak association among three measures of testosterone with novelty seeking, sociability and, to a lesser extent, with impulsive sensation seeking. Our data, as expected, confirmed previous results and also suggest that these relationships are strongly affected by the age variable. LH, FSH and SHBG hormones play no role in the reported relationships.