ArticleBiological psychiatry2021
Estrogen Withdrawal Increases Postpartum Anxiety via Oxytocin Plasticity in the Paraventricular Hypothalamus and Dorsal Raphe Nucleus.
Article in Biological psychiatry, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of physical activity on depressive and anxiety symptoms of women in the menopausal transition and menopause: a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Pooled it
- Ultrashort wave therapy promotes traumatic brain injury recovery by suppressing neuroinflammation.Neural regeneration research · 2026Article
- Kicking Off Motherhood: Considering Return to Play Postpartum in the Footballer.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Review
- ∆FOSB in the Nucleus Accumbens Core Is Required for Increased Anxiety, but Not Decreased Social Motivation, Following Estrogen Withdrawal in Female Mice.Genes, brain, and behavior · 2026Article
- Anxiety and Maternal Self-efficacy among Postpartum Mothers during the COVID-19 Pandemic.Acta medica Philippina · 2026Article
- Estrogen receptor beta in lateral habenula mediates antidepressant effects of estrogen in postpartum-hormone-withdrawal-induced depression.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Particulate matter exposure induces maternal scalp hair loss after birth in C57/B6 mouse via alteration of inflammatory and apoptotic pathways.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Article
- ΔFOSB in the nucleus accumbens core is required for increased anxiety, but not decreased social motivation, following estrogen withdrawal in female mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Effects of Intranasal Oxytocin Across Various Depressive Disorders.Psychiatry investigation · 2025Article
- Leveraging research into sex differences and steroid hormones to improve brain health.Nature reviews. Endocrinology · 2025Review
- The Impact of Stress on Women's Sexuality in the First Months After Childbirth-A Pilot Cross-Sectional Comparative Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Sex differences in the impact of controlling nutritional status score on diabetic retinopathy: findings of 2003-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- The Hypothalamic Medial Preoptic Area-Paraventricular Nucleus Circuit Modulates Depressive-Like Behaviors in a Mouse Model of Postpartum Depression.Research (Washington, D.C.) · 2025Article
- Neuropeptide TIP39 as a pluripotent brain molecule and its potential functions in postpartum depression.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Review
- Projections from subfornical organ to bed nucleus of the stria terminalis modulate inflammation-induced anxiety-like behaviors in mice.Science advances · 2024Article
- What Patient-related Factors Most Strongly Influence Autologous Fat Grafting Volume Retention in Breast Augmentation?Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open · 2024Article
- Role of estrogen in sex differences in memory, emotion and neuropsychiatric disorders.Molecular biology reports · 2024Review
- A single intravenous reelin injection restores corticosterone-induced neurochemical and behavioral alterations in dams during the post-partum period.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2024Article
- Supportive care of female hormones in brain health: what and how?Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Review
- Circulating JKAP levels may correlate with postpartum anxiety and depression through its interaction with T helper 17 cells.Brazilian journal of medical and biological research = Revista brasileira de pesquisas medicas e biologica · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
17 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEstrogen increases dramatically during pregnancy but quickly drops below prepregnancy levels at birth and remains suppressed during the postpartum period. Clinical and rodent work suggests that this postpartum drop in estrogen results in an estrogen withdrawal state that is related to changes in affect, mood, and behavior. How estrogen withdrawal affects oxytocin (OT) neurocircuitry has not been examined.
methodsWe used a hormone-simulated pseudopregnancy followed by estrogen withdrawal in Syrian hamsters, a first for this species. Ovariectomized females were given daily injections to approximate hormone levels during gestation and then withdrawn from estrogen to simulate postpartum estrogen withdrawal. These hamsters were tested for behavioral assays of anxiety and anhedonia during estrogen withdrawal. Neuroplasticity in OT-producing neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and its efferent targets was measured.
resultsEstrogen-withdrawn females had increased anxiety-like behaviors in the elevated plus maze and open field tests but did not differ from control females in sucrose preference. Furthermore, estrogen-withdrawn females had more OT-immunoreactive cells and OT messenger RNA in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and an increase in OT receptor density in the dorsal raphe nucleus. Finally, blocking OT receptors in the dorsal raphe nucleus during estrogen withdrawal prevented the high-anxiety behavioral phenotype in estrogen-withdrawn females.
conclusionsEstrogen withdrawal induces OT neuroplasticity in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and dorsal raphe nucleus to increase anxiety-like behavior during the postpartum period. More broadly, these experiments suggest Syrian hamsters as a novel organism in which to model the effects of postpartum estrogen withdrawal on the brain and anxiety-like behavior.
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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.