Влияние различных гормонов на симптомы шизофрении

The relationship between androgens and mental state seems particularly complicated. Animal evidence suggests that testosterone may be propsychotic, given that administration of testosterone significantly enhanced NMDA antagonist-induced disruptions in prepulse inhibition in OVX rats. There is also limited evidence that high-dose androgenic steroids can induce psychiatric symptoms in humans; however, most of the research to date into androgens and mental state has focused on the testosterone precursors dehydroepiandrosterone and DHEA-sulfate (DHEA-S). DHEA(S) is neuroprotective in the rodent brain, and differences in DHEA(S) blood levels between psychotic patients and healthy controls are widely reported; however, the direction of these differences is far from consistent. Results from clinical studies trialling DHEA(S) as an augmentation strategy have been similarly contradictory, with some studies finding a modest treatment effect and others reporting no superiority over placebo. Further research is needed. Pregnenolone and its metabolites pregnenolone sulfate and allopregnanolone seem more promising. In addition to also possessing neuromodulatory and neuroprotective properties, these neurosteroids exert positive effects in rodent models of cognition and psychosis.Serum levels of pregnenolone have been found to be lower in patients with schizophrenia than in healthy controls, and antipsychotic medications can significantly increase pregnenolone levels in the brain. A review of three small pilot studies investigating pregnenolone as an adjunctive intervention for patients with schizophrenia reports that pregnenolone was able to improve psychotic and cognitive symptoms, paving the way for future research into this compound. Recently, oxytocin has also emerged as possibly having an influence on mental state after one study found that higher peripheral oxytocin levels were associated with decreased symptom severity in women with chronic schizophrenia, and another study demonstrated efficacy of intranasal oxytocin as an adjunctive therapy in a randomized, cross-over sample of 15 schizophrenia patients.

 Hormones and Schizophrenia