Trial reportPsychoneuroendocrinology2012
A history of depression in women is associated with an altered GABAergic neuroactive steroid profile.
Trial report in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 65 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of progesterone administration in male and female smokers on nicotine withdrawal and neural response to smoking cues: role of progesterone conversion to allopregnanolone.Biology of sex differences · 2022Trial
- Total Dietary Polyphenols and Their Components Intake Associated With Quality of Life Among Women With Obesity and Overweight: A Cross-Sectional Study.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Androgens alleviate the depression-like phenotype in female mice by inhibiting AVPR1a in the hippocampal brain region.Molecular medicine (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- Levels of neuroactive steroids are elevated in those who develop first-onset depression early in pregnancy.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Neuroactive Steroids, Toll-like Receptors, and Neuroimmune Regulation: Insights into Their Impact on Neuropsychiatric Disorders.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Microbial and metabolomic profiles of type 1 diabetes with depression: A case-control study.Journal of diabetes · 2024Article
- Acute stress impairs sensorimotor gating via the neurosteroid allopregnanolone in the prefrontal cortex.Neurobiology of stress · 2022Article
- The Allopregnanolone Response to Acute Stress in Females: Preclinical and Clinical Studies.Biomolecules · 2022Review
- Gut feelings: the microbiota-gut-brain axis on steroids.American journal of physiology. Gastrointestinal and liver physiology · 2022Review
- Neuroactive steroids and depression in early pregnancy.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2021Article
- Sex differences in progestogen- and androgen-derived neurosteroids in vulnerability to alcohol and stress-related disorders.Neuropharmacology · 2021Review
- Longitudinal proneuroactive and neuroactive steroid profiles in medication-free women with, without and at-risk for perinatal depression: A liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2020Article
- Pleiotropic actions of allopregnanolone underlie therapeutic benefits in stress-related disease.Neurobiology of stress · 2020Article
- An LC/MS/MS method for analyzing the steroid metabolome with high accuracy and from small serum samples.Journal of lipid research · 2020Article
- A Rationale for Allopregnanolone Treatment of Alcohol Use Disorders: Basic and Clinical Studies.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2020Review
- Chronic Depression Alters Mothers' DHEA and DEHA-to-Cortisol Ratio: Implications for Maternal Behavior and Child Outcomes.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Article
- Central Actions of 3α,5α-THP Involving NMDA and GABAFrontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2020Article
- Effect of Polyphenol-Rich Dark Chocolate on Salivary Cortisol and Mood in Adults.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Article
- Testosterone is related to GABA+ levels in the posterior-cingulate in unmedicated depressed women during reproductive life.Journal of affective disorders · 2019Article
- Neuroactive Steroids and Perinatal Depression: a Review of Recent Literature.Current psychiatry reports · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The 3α,5α- and 3α,5β-reduced metabolites of progesterone, deoxycorticosterone, and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) have potent effects on neurotransmission mediated by GABA(A) receptors, and dysregulation of these receptors has been implicated in depression. Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, we compared neuroactive steroid concentrations in women with a history of depressive disorders, but who were in full remission at the time of testing (n=11) to never depressed women (n=17) both before and after a challenge with oral micronized progesterone (300 mg). Serum concentrations of the following were obtained: four progesterone-derived GABAergic neuroactive steroids, the precursor pregnenolone, androstenedione-derived neuroactive steroids, and the precursor DHEA. As an index of conversion of progesterone to neuroactive steroids, we also examined ratios of neuroactive steroids to progesterone following the oral progesterone challenge. Results indicated that both before and after oral progesterone, women with histories of depression showed lower concentrations of all GABAergic neuroactive steroids than never depressed women. Those with a history of depression also had lower cortisol concentrations. Because serum neuroactive steroids are mainly synthesized in the adrenals, we hypothesize that histories of depression may be associated with persistent adrenal suppression. Following the progesterone challenge, ratios of the progesterone-derived neuroactive steroids to plasma progesterone concentrations were elevated in women with depression histories, suggesting there may be an adaptive shift in the metabolism of progesterone that compensates for lower circulating neuroactive steroid concentrations.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.