ArticleFrontiers in endocrinology2011
Beyond the HPA Axis: Progesterone-Derived Neuroactive Steroids in Human Stress and Emotion.
Article in Frontiers in endocrinology, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
40 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 124 citations in OpenAlex.
- Antispasmodic and analgesic strategies for renal colic in pregnancy: a comprehensive analysis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Pooled it
- The effects of power posing on neuroendocrine levels and risk-taking.BMC psychology · 2024Trial
- Sex differences in stress responding in a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial of progesterone in cannabis use disorder.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Plasma Allopregnanolone and Sex Hormone Responses to Stress Induction: Contributors to the Formation of Intrusive Memories.Neuropsychobiology · 2026Article
- Estradiol and non-REM sleep attenuate physiological and emotional responses to social-evaluative stress in healthy women.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Metabolic state shapes cortisol reactivity to acute stress: A systematic review and meta-analysis of metabolic and hormonal modulators.Neurobiology of stress · 2025Article
- Impact of social exclusion on salivary progesterone and estradiol in women with borderline personality disorder.Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation · 2025Article
- Neuroendocrine responses and coupling to laboratory-induced stress in problem gambling and heavy smoking.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
- Single cell resolution of neurosteroidogenesis in the murine brain: intermediary biosynthesis.The Journal of endocrinology · 2025Article
- Chronic unpredictable stress induces anxiety-like behavior and oxidative stress, leading to diminished ovarian reserve.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Disentangling the unique contributions of age, pubertal stage, and pubertal hormones to brain structure in childhood and adolescence.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2024Article
- Teachers' Heart Rate Variability and Behavioral Reactions in Aggressive Interactions: Teachers Can Downregulate Their Physiological Arousal, and Progesterone Favors Social Integrative Teacher Responses.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2024Article
- Hypothalamus and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Review.Brain sciences · 2023Review
- Sex steroid hormones in depressive disorders as a basis for new potential treatment strategies.Physiological research · 2022Review
- Allopregnanolone: An overview on its synthesis and effects.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2022Review
- Pilot examination of stress, heart rate variability, and alcohol craving and use among female veterans.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Serial Hydrolysis for the Simultaneous Analysis of Catecholamines and Steroids in the Urine of Patients with Alopecia Areata.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Hormonal Regulation of Oligodendrogenesis I: Effects across the Lifespan.Biomolecules · 2021Review
- Prolonged Maternal Separation Induces the Depression-Like Behavior Susceptibility to Chronic Unpredictable Mild Stress Exposure in Mice.BioMed research international · 2021Article
- Effects of prenatal stress on neuroactive steroid responses to acute stress in adult male and female rats.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Stress and social isolation are well-known risk factors for psychopathology. However, more research is needed as to the physiological mechanisms by which social support buffers the impacts of stress. Research in animal models suggests important roles for progesterone (P) and its product, the neuroactive steroid allopregnanolone (ALLO), in stress and psychopathology. These hormones are produced in brain and periphery during stress in rodents, and down-regulate anxiety behavior and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity. Human clinical populations, including depressed patients, have alterations in ALLO levels, but it is unclear whether these basal hormone level differences have clinical import. To begin to address this question, this review examines the role of P and ALLO in stress physiology, and the impact of these hormones on mood, in healthy humans. Evidence largely supports that P and ALLO increase during stress in humans. However, P/ALLO administration appears to cause only mild effects on mood and subjective anxiety, while exerting effects consistent with gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor modulation. Additionally, P is linked to motivation for affiliation/social contact; P (and ALLO) release may be especially responsive to social rejection. These observations lead to the novel hypothesis that stress-related P/ALLO production functions not only to down-regulate stress and anxiety, but also to promote social contact as a long-term coping strategy. Malfunctioning of the P/ALLO system could therefore underlie depression partly by decreasing propensity to affiliate with others.
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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.