ReviewBiomedicines2022
Why Does Psychotherapy Work and for Whom? Hormonal Answers.
Review in Biomedicines, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 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
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Hair cortisol as outcome parameter for psychological and neuropsychiatric interventions-a literature review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Reduction of oxytocin plasma levels in borderline personality disorder and normalization induced by psychotherapies.Psychological medicine · 2025Trial
- Beyond Self-Reports: Integrating Cortisol Measurement in Psychotherapy Process Research among Adolescents with Borderline Personality Pathology.Psychotherapy and psychosomatics · 2026Article
- The role of oxytocin as an indicator of outcome and therapeutic alliance.Research in psychotherapy (Milano) · 2025Article
- Within-session habituation and salivary cortisol during exposure treatment in obsessive-compulsive disorder - A link and an influence of DHEA?Indian journal of psychiatry · 2024Article
- Restraint Stress, Foot Shock and Corticosterone Differentially Alter Autophagy in the Rat Hippocampus, Basolateral Amygdala and Prefrontal Cortex.Neurochemical research · 2024Article
- Unraveling the core symptoms of mental health in senior grade three students- a network analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Oxytocin as a physiological correlate of dyadic music therapy relationships - a randomized crossover pilot study.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2024Article
- Fingernail Cortisol: A Biological Signal of Lifetime Major Depressive Disorder.Neuropsychobiology · 2023Article
- Patient and Therapist In-Session Cortisol as Predictor of Post-Session Patient Reported Affect.Brain sciences · 2021Article
- Genes and hormones of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in post-traumatic stress disorder. What is their role in symptom expression and treatment response?Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2021Review
- Menstrual Cycle Dynamics and Their Impact on Psychotherapy: Insights From a Mixed-Methods Study.Clinical psychology & psychotherapyArticle
- Abnormalities of cortical and subcortical spontaneous brain activity unveil mechanisms of disorders of consciousness and prognosis in patients with severe traumatic brain injury.International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHPArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The questions of for whom and why psychotherapy is effective have been the focus of five decades of research. Most of this knowledge is based on self-report measures. Following the biopsychosocial model of mental disorders, this article explores the potential of hormones in answering these questions. The literature on cortisol, oxytocin, and oestradiol in psychotherapy was systematically searched, focusing on (a) baseline hormonal predictors of who may benefit from psychotherapy and (b) hormonal changes as indicators of therapeutic change. The search was limited to depression and anxiety disorders. In sum, the findings show that, of all three hormones, the role of cortisol is most established and that both cortisol and oxytocin are implicated in psychotherapy, although a causal role is still waiting to be demonstrated. Moreover, there is a differential role of hormones in the psychotherapy of depression versus anxiety. The directions of research mapped in this article may elucidate how psychotherapy can be selected to match patients' endocrine states and how hormonal levels can be manipulated to improve outcomes.
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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.