My brother has schizophrenia and I have heard that he may benefit from testosterone. Is this true?

Schizophrenia is a serious mental health disorder which affects close to 1% of the population. The only decent treatment available are anti-psychotic medications but these have a number of unpleasant side effects. Thus, many people have been turning to alternative treatments. One such treatment is testosterone derivatives. There are anecdotal reports that people treated with DHEA (testosterone derivative) plus anti-psychotics may have a positive response. Unfortunately the trials were small and not everyone obtained the same benefit. One should also remember that testosterone has many side effects which are very unpleasant. As of now, testosterone is not an accepted treatment for schizophrenia and there are no large scale studies to show that it works.