Pharmacological sex hormone manipulation as a risk model for depression.

ABSTRACT: Sex hormone transition may trigger severe depressive episodes in some women. In order to map mechanisms related to such phenomena we developed a pharmacological preclinical human model using sex hormone manipulation with gonadotropin releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) in a placebo-controlled design. Here the findings from this model is synthesized and discussed in the context of related literature on hormonal contributions to reproductive mental health disorders. The GnRha model work points to an estradiol-dependent depressive response in healthy women undergoing short-term sex hormone manipulation with GnRHa, which is linked to serotonin transporter changes (a key regulator of synaptic serotonin), a disengagement of hippocampus, and overengagement of brain networks recruited when processin

SUBMITTER: Frokjaer VG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7383584 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature