ArticlePsychopharmacology2016
Blunted neuroactive steroid and HPA axis responses to stress are associated with reduced sleep quality and negative affect in pregnancy: a pilot study.
Article in Psychopharmacology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02826577 (Effects of Pregnenolone on Perceived Social Isolation), which is not on this map. Cited by 38 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.
Effects of Pregnenolone on Perceived Social Isolation: A Double-blind Randomized Electrical Neuroimaging Study
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 60 citations in OpenAlex.
- Maternal Prenatal Stress and the Offspring Gut Microbiome: A Cross-Species Systematic Review.Developmental psychobiology · 2025Pooled it
- Associations of Allopregnanolone and Related Steroid Hormones with Prenatal Psychosocial Distress in the Healthy Start Cohort.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Serum Serotonin Levels and Postpartum Depression in Women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Prospective Psychobiological Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Maternal sleep deprivation and developmental programming of brain aging trajectories in offspring.Biogerontology · 2026Review
- Mitochondrial dysfunction in perimenopausal mood disorders: From hormonal shifts to neuroenergetic failure (Review).International journal of molecular medicine · 2025Review
- Mapping of Determinants of Urinary Sex Steroid Metabolites During Late Pregnancy: Results from Two Spanish Cohorts.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Biomarkers of reproductive psychiatric disorders.The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science · 2025Review
- Patterns of Respiration Rate Reactivity in Response to a Cognitive Stressor Associate With Self-Reported Mental Health Outcomes.Psychological reports · 2025Article
- Neuroactive steroid biosynthesis during pregnancy predicts future postpartum depression: a role for the 3α and/or 3β-HSD neurosteroidogenic enzymes?Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Hair Allopregnanolone in Mares and Foals as a Retrospective Biomarker of Predicting Feto-Maternal Well-Being.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Allopregnanolone and mood in the peripartum: a longitudinal assessment in healthy women.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2024Article
- Sleep Disturbances Across a Woman's Lifespan: What Is the Role of Reproductive Hormones?Journal of the Endocrine Society · 2023Review
- A Nested Case-Control Study of Allopregnanolone and Preterm Birth in the Healthy Start Cohort.Journal of the Endocrine Society · 2022Article
- The Allopregnanolone Response to Acute Stress in Females: Preclinical and Clinical Studies.Biomolecules · 2022Review
- Allopregnanolone and depression and anxiety symptoms across the peripartum: an exploratory study.Archives of women's mental health · 2022Article
- Allopregnanolone in Postpartum Depression.Frontiers in global women's health · 2022Review
- Development and validation of an LC-MS/MS assay for the quantification of allopregnanolone and its progesterone-derived isomers, precursors, and cortisol/cortisone in pregnancy.Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry · 2021Article
- Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Affective Symptoms, and Neuroactive Steroids: a Focus on Allopregnanolone.Current psychiatry reports · 2021Review
- Neurosteroid involvement in threatened preterm labour.Endocrinology, diabetes & metabolism · 2021Article
- Neurobiology of peripartum mental illness.Handbook of clinical neurology · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
rationaleAnxiety during pregnancy has been linked to adverse maternal health outcomes, including postpartum depression (PPD). However, there has been limited study of biological mechanisms underlying behavioral predictors of PPD during pregnancy.
objectivesConsidering the shared etiology of chronic stress amongst antenatal behavioral predictors, the primary goal of this pilot study was to examine associations among stress-related physiological factors (including GABA-ergic neurosteroids) and stress-related behavioral indices of anxiety during pregnancy.
methodsFourteen nulliparous women in their second trimester of a singleton pregnancy underwent speech and mental arithmetic stress, following a 2-week subjective and objective recording of sleep-wake behavior.
resultsLower cortisol, progesterone, and a combined measure of ALLO + pregnanolone throughout the entire stressor protocol (area under the curve, AUC) were associated with greater negative emotional responses to stress, and lower cortisol AUC was associated with worse sleep quality. Lower adrenocorticotropic hormone was associated with greater anxious and depressive symptoms. Stress produced paradoxical reductions in cortisol, progesterone, and a combined measure of allopregnanolone + pregnanolone, while tetrahydrodeoxycorticosterone levels were elevated.
conclusionsThese data suggest that cortisol, progesterone, and ALLO + pregnanolone levels in the second trimester of pregnancy are inversely related to negative emotional symptoms, and the negative impact of acute stress challenge appears to exert its effects by reducing these steroids to further promote negative emotional responses.
Indexed as
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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.