Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Oct;25(5):768-771.
doi: 10.1007/s11102-022-01245-9. Epub 2022 Jun 29.

Quality of life impairment after a diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome

Susan M Webb  1 , Elena Valassi  2
Affiliations
Review

Quality of life impairment after a diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome

Susan M Webb et al. Pituitary. 2022 Oct.

Abstract

This brief review is devoted mainly to publications in the last 5 years dealing with health-related quality of life (QoL) after a diagnosis of endogenous hypercortisolism, due to pituitary-dependent Cushing's disease (CD) or any other cause of Cushing syndrome (CS). Despite improvement after treatment, persistent physical morbidity, neurocognitive problems like worse executive capacity and memory as well as stress intolerance, depressive symptoms and more anxiety, lead to long-term impairment of QoL.

Keywords: Anxiety; Cushing syndrome; Depression; Emotional distress; Memory impairment; Quality of life.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Impaired Quality of Life (QoL) in Cushing’s syndrome is determined by impaired health perception (due to persistent symptoms and morbidity), depressive symptoms and neurocognitive difficulties (including memory, executive functioning, intelligence and attention), leading to difficulties to cope with stress and emotions
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Piasecka M, Papakokkinou E, Valassi E, Santos A, Webb SM, de Vries F, Pereira AM, Ragnarsson O. Psychiatric and neurocognitive consequences of endogenous hypercortisolism. J Intern Med. 2020;288:168–182. doi: 10.1111/joim.13056. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Broersen LHA, Andela CD, Dekkers OM, Pereira AM, Biermasz NR. Improvement but No Normalization of Quality of Life and Cognitive Functioning After Treatment of Cushing Syndrome. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2019;104:5325–5337. doi: 10.1210/jc.2019-01054. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Frimodt-Møller KE, Møllegaard Jepsen JR, Feldt-Rasmussen U, Krogh J. Hippocampal Volume, Cognitive Functions, Depression, Anxiety, and Quality of Life in Patients With Cushing Syndrome. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2019;104:4563–4577. doi: 10.1210/jc.2019-00749. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Martel-Duguech L, Alonso-Jiménez A, Bascuñana H, Díaz-Manera J, Llauger J, Nuñez-Peralta C, Montesinos P, Webb SM, Valassi E. Prevalence of Sarcopenia after remission of hypercortisolism and its impact on HRQoL. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf) 2021;95:735–743. doi: 10.1111/cen.14568. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Santos A, Resmini E, Pascual JC, Crespo I, Webb SM. Psychiatric Symptoms in Patients with Cushing’s Syndrome: Prevalence, Diagnosis and Management. Drugs. 2017;77:829–842. doi: 10.1007/s40265-017-0735-z. - DOI - PubMed