Plasma testosterone level and testosterone production rate were determined in a group of 18 healthy young men, 15 healthy older men and 6 hospitalized dysphoric male patients. A battery of anxiety, depression and hostility tests were administered simultaneously. Production rate of testosterone was found to be highly correlated with a measure of aggression derived from the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory in the younger men. Age, on the other hand, was the principal correlant of production rate in the older group. A multivariate regression equation was obtained between testosterone production rate and four psychologic measures of aggression and hostility which accounted for 82% of the variance in the production rate of testosterone for the younger group. This equation was not valid for the older men.Aggressive behavior has been associated with male gonadal activity in a number of mammalian species (1-3). Fighting behavior, for example, has been shown to arise in mice about the time of onset of puberty (4), to be abolished by castration (5) and restored in castrates by administration male sex hormone (6). Psychoendocrine studies concerned with testosterone metabolism in man have been extremely limited, primarily because of methodologic considerations. With the advent of adequate technics for assessment of plasma testosterone level, of urinary testosterone metabolites, and of testosterone production rate, a heightened interest in human gonadal-behavioral relationships may be predicted in the future.In the course of a preceding study (7) of affect-endocrine interrelationships, a considerable degree of specificity was obtained between dysphoric feelings (anxiety + depression) and activity of the pituitary (ACTH)-adrenocortical axis, on one hand, and feelings of hostility and activity of pituitary (LH)-testicular axis on the other. At the time of that study, it was necessary to use urinary 17-ketosteroids as a measure of gonadal function for want of more specific technics. Despite that technical deficit, the evidence in support of specific association of a single endocrine system, LH-
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