Trial reportMolecular psychiatry2021
Effects of oral contraceptive pills on mood and magnetic resonance imaging measures of prefrontal cortical thickness.
Trial report in Molecular psychiatry, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 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
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Hormonal contraceptives and the brain: A systematic review on 60 years of neuroimaging, EEG, and biochemical studies in humans and animals.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2023Pooled it
- Effects of Oral Contraceptive Pills on Brain Networks: A Conceptual Replication and Extension.Human brain mapping · 2025Trial
- Adolescent Hormonal Contraceptive Use in the Context of Brain Development and Depression Risk: A Review and Considerations for Future Research.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Review
- Can reporting mood swings during oral contraceptive use predict peripartum depression? Results from the Swedish longitudinal cohort study Mom2B.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2025Article
- Association Between Hormonal Contraceptive Use and Lipedema: A Cross-Sectional Study With 637 Brazilian Women.Cureus · 2025Article
- Relating sex-bias in human cortical and hippocampal microstructure to sex hormones.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Mental Health Symptoms in Oral Contraceptive Users During Short-Term Hormone Withdrawal.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- Towards a more comprehensive neuroscience of hormonal contraceptives.Nature neuroscience · 2023Article
- Morphologic alterations of the fear circuitry: the role of sex hormones and oral contraceptives.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Article
- The impact of 17β-estradiol on the estrogen-deficient female brain: from mechanisms to therapy with hot flushes as target symptoms.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Review
- Editorial: Effects of hormonal contraceptives on the brain.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Article
- Hormone-based models for comparing menstrual cycle and hormonal contraceptive effects on human resting-state functional connectivity.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2022Article
- No Differences in Value-Based Decision-Making Due to Use of Oral Contraceptives.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Article
- Duration of oral contraceptive use relates to cognitive performance and brain activation in current and past users.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Article
- Oral Contraceptives, Concussion History, and Contact-Sport Exposure: Multimodal MRI and Brain Injury Biomarkers in Female Athletes.Neurotrauma reportsArticle
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 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Gonadal hormones influence neuronal organization and plasticity. Yet the consequences of altering their concentrations by administering contraceptive agents, which are used by most reproductive-age women in the United States, are unclear. Cross-sectional studies have found both larger and smaller cortical regions alongside a variety of mood alterations in women who use oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) compared to naturally-cycling women. The goal of this study, therefore, was to determine whether there is an effect of OCPs on MRI measures of prefrontal cortical brain structure that may influence regulation of mood. We performed a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized crossover study comparing effects of OCPs (0.15 mg levonorgestrel + 0.30 μg ethinyl estradiol) vs placebo (N = 26) on MRI measures of prefrontal cortical thickness and on mood, as indicated by self-report on the Daily Record of Severity of Problems, which also includes one item related to somatic symptoms. MRI measures that reflect cortical thickness were smaller bilaterally in the pars triangularis and in the pars opercularis and frontal pole of the right hemisphere during the OCP arm vs. placebo. Only the effect in the right pars triangularis survived multiple comparisons correction. Right pars triangularis MRI measures of cortical thickness were not related to mood symptoms, but negatively correlated across conditions with severity of somatic symptoms on the DSRP. The somatic symptoms and MRI measures may be independently related to the actions of steroid hormones in OCPs, with OCPs simultaneously inducing both more effects on MRI measures of cortical thickness and somatic symptoms.
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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.