Trial reportNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2013
DHEA enhances emotion regulation neurocircuits and modulates memory for emotional stimuli.
Trial report in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 3 of them syntheses 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
41 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 87 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review of sex differences in the relationship between hormones and depression in HIV.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2022Pooled it
- The effects of acute stress on episodic memory: A meta-analysis and integrative review.Psychological bulletin · 2017Pooled it
- A systematic review of adrenarche as a sensitive period in neurobiological development and mental health.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2017Pooled it
- DHEA metabolism to the neurosteroid androsterone: a possible mechanism of DHEA's antidepressant action.Psychopharmacology · 2015Trial
- The neurosteroids allopregnanolone and dehydroepiandrosterone modulate resting-state amygdala connectivity.Human brain mapping · 2014Trial
- Allopregnanolone elevations following pregnenolone administration are associated with enhanced activation of emotion regulation neurocircuits.Biological psychiatry · 2013Trial
- Adrenarche as a regulator of sensitivity to early adversity.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2026Review
- Neurosteroids, Microbiota, and Neuroinflammation: Mechanistic Insights and Therapeutic Perspectives.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- The Potential of a Robot Presence in Close Relationship to Influence Human Responses to Experimental Pain.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Resilience phenotypes derived from an active inference account of allostasis.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- Review
- Life stress influences the relationship between sex hormone fluctuation and affective symptoms in peripubertal female adolescents.Development and psychopathology · 2024Article
- Neuroactive Steroids, Toll-like Receptors, and Neuroimmune Regulation: Insights into Their Impact on Neuropsychiatric Disorders.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Relationship between COVID-related stressors and internalizing symptoms: Gendered neuroendocrine risk profiles.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Article
- Greater Early Posttrauma Activation in the Right Inferior Frontal Gyrus Predicts Recovery From Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2024Article
- Individual Differences in Emotion Attenuation Brought by Indirect Replies Is Related to Resting-State Brain Activity.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- Psychobiological risk factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviors in adolescence: a consideration of the role of puberty.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Review
- Article
- Functional connectivity predicts the dispositional use of expressive suppression but not cognitive reappraisal.Brain and behavior · 2020Article
- Peripheral blood neuroendocrine hormones are associated with clinical indices of sport-related concussion.Scientific reports · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a neurosteroid with anxiolytic, antidepressant, and antiglucocorticoid properties. It is endogenously released in response to stress, and may reduce negative affect when administered exogenously. Although there have been multiple reports of DHEA's antidepressant and anxiolytic effects, no research to date has examined the neural pathways involved. In particular, brain imaging has not been used to link neurosteroid effects to emotion neurocircuitry. To investigate the brain basis of DHEA's impact on emotion modulation, patients were administered 400 mg of DHEA (N=14) or placebo (N=15) and underwent 3T fMRI while performing the shifted-attention emotion appraisal task (SEAT), a test of emotional processing and regulation. Compared with placebo, DHEA reduced activity in the amygdala and hippocampus, enhanced connectivity between the amygdala and hippocampus, and enhanced activity in the rACC. These activation changes were associated with reduced negative affect. DHEA reduced memory accuracy for emotional stimuli, and also reduced activity in regions associated with conjunctive memory encoding. These results demonstrate that DHEA reduces activity in regions associated with generation of negative emotion and enhances activity in regions linked to regulatory processes. Considering that activity in these regions is altered in mood and anxiety disorders, our results provide initial neuroimaging evidence that DHEA may be useful as a pharmacological intervention for these conditions and invite further investigation into the brain basis of neurosteroid emotion regulatory effects.
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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.