Trial reportThe American journal on addictions2019
Neuroactive steroid levels and cocaine use chronicity in men and women with cocaine use disorder receiving progesterone or placebo.
Trial report in The American journal on addictions, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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
11 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pregnenolone reduces provoked craving and cocaine use in men and women with cocaine use disorder: A pilot trial.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Trial
- Pregnenolone effects on parasympathetic response to stress and alcohol cue provocation in treatment-seeking individuals with alcohol use disorder.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2025Trial
- Pregnenolone effects on provoked alcohol craving, anxiety, HPA axis, and autonomic arousal in individuals with alcohol use disorder.Psychopharmacology · 2023Trial
- Pregnenolone Reduces Stress-Induced Craving, Anxiety, and Autonomic Arousal in Individuals with Cocaine Use Disorder.Biomolecules · 2022Trial
- Endocrine modulation of stimulant use: bidirectional interactions within the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Review
- The role of neuroactive steroids in psychiatric and neurological disorders: Neurobiology and therapeutic perspectives.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2025Review
- Acute, but not repeated, cocaine exposure alters allopregnanolone levels in the midbrain of male and female rats.Psychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Neuroactive Steroids, Toll-like Receptors, and Neuroimmune Regulation: Insights into Their Impact on Neuropsychiatric Disorders.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Neurosteroids (allopregnanolone) and alcohol use disorder: From mechanisms to potential pharmacotherapy.Pharmacology & therapeutics · 2022Review
- A Rationale for Allopregnanolone Treatment of Alcohol Use Disorders: Basic and Clinical Studies.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2020Review
- Allopregnanolone Decreases Evoked Dopamine Release Differently in Rats by Sex and Estrous Stage.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
objectivesNeuroactive steroids (NAS) may play a role in addiction, with observed increases in response to acute stress and drug use, but decreases with chronic substance use, suggesting that NAS neuroadaptations may occur with chronic substance use. However, levels of NAS in addicted individuals have not been systematically examined. Here, we evaluated a panel of NAS in men and women with cocaine use disorder (CUD) who participated in a clinical laboratory study of progesterone.
methodsForty six CUD individuals were enrolled in a randomized placebo-controlled laboratory study to evaluate progesterone effects on levels of various NAS. On day 5 of a 7-day inpatient treatment regimen of 400 mg/day progesterone (15M/8F) or placebo (14M/9F), plasma levels of NAS known to be downstream of progesterone (allopregnanolone, pregnanolone), and NAS not in the progesterone synthesis pathway (androstanediol, testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone [DHEA] and the NAS precursor, pregnenolone) were analyzed using highly sensitive gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The relationship between each of the NAS and chronicity of cocaine use was also assessed.
resultsProgesterone versus placebo significantly increased the GABAergic NAS allopregnanolone and pregnanolone in both CUD men and women. Levels of pregnenolone, testosterone, its GABAergic metabolite androstanediol, and the non-GABAergic DHEA were unaffected by progesterone treatment, and testosterone and androstanediol levels were significantly higher in men than women. Importantly, lower pregnenolone and androstanediol levels were associated with greater years of cocaine use. SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: GABAergic NAS that are upstream from the progesterone synthesis pathway appear susceptible to chronic effects of cocaine use. (Am J Addict 2019;28:16-21).
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.