During the question and answer session, Professor Chatterjee and Dr Gurnell explained that the status of DHEA as a medical product is unclear.  It is not licensed as a medicine in the UK, so the small number of hospitals who have obtained supplies have done so on an individual basis, usually importing the drug from the USA  where it is available cheaply as an over-the-counter, health food supplement. However, if clinical trials show that it is beneficial, it may well be licensed or become more widely available in Europe.

 They also explained that not everyone with adrenal insufficiency will necessarily do better on DHEA. Anyone who feels well on their current medication should not simply rush out and try it. If you do decide to try it, they recommend that blood levels of DHEAS are checked about four weeks after starting to establish that the dosage is correct. It may not be advisable for anyone with a personal or family history of breast cancer or prostate cancer to take DHEA.  

 Professor Chatterjee has promised the ADSHG a write-up of the full results from the study once they are available.  This is likely to be in December this year, once the report has been submitted for publication in a medical journal. Moreover, after they have completed analysis of the current 12 month trial, his research team are hoping to do a further long-term study on DHEA in Addison's disease.  They would like to enrol further volunteers from the ADSHG for that study which should start in 2003, and hope there will still be members who have not yet tried DHEA available, so they can monitor the long-term effects of DHEA in a proper study. 

 The results of the earlier three month clinical trial were published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 85 (12) in the article: “Improvement in mood and fatigue after DHEA replacement in Addison’s disease”, P.J.Hunt el al, Dec 2000