Sex, hormones and affective arousal circuitry dysfunction in schizophrenia

Estrogen Actions in the Brain and the Basis for Differential Action in Men and Women: A Case for Sex-Specific Medicines

“…Thus, sex differences in a biological response could be the result of differences in the prevailing levels of gonadal hormones in adulthood, with no presumptive sex differences in the underlying biological substrate. For example, in humans and in species used in research, administration of androgens to females may induce aspects of male-typical behavior that revert to normal once hormone treatment ceases; the cyclical rise and fall in levels of ovarian hormones in women and animal species used in research also influences many behaviors (Kelly et al, 1999;Halpern and Tan, 2001;Cahill, 2006;Goldstein, 2006;Wilson and Davies, 2007). These are traditionally called activational (reversible) effects (Arnold and Breedlove, 1985;Williams, 1986) or hormonally modulated responses (McCarthy and Konkle, 2005), which dictate sex differences at molecular, cellular, and functional levels but are not in themselves true dimorphisms.…”

“…For example, the 2-fold greater incidence of major depressive disorder in women compared with men is a considerable driving force to understand the underlying mechanisms (Solomon and Herman, 2009). Therefore, it is of particular clinical significance that neuroendocrine, autonomic, and behavioral responses to stress in humans (Chrousos and Gold, 1992;Wolf et al, 2001;Kudielka and Kirschbaum, 2005;Goldstein, 2006) and animals (Wood and Shors, 1998;Wood et al, 2001;Luine et al, 2007) are sexually dimorphic. In species used in research, there is good agreement that basal and acute stress-induced adrenocorticotropin and corticosterone levels are higher in the female circulation relative to that in males.…”

“…This provides a possible mechanism and structural basis for functional change in the mesolimbic system that occurs after early-life exposure to stress (Meaney et al, 2002;Pruessner et al, 2004;Thomas et al, 2009). These observations are especially pertinent in view of the fact that exposure to traumatic experiences in early life compromises later ability to cope with stress and predisposes to development of psychiatric disorders (de Kloet et al, 2005;Glover et al, 2009) (Goldstein, 2006;Rao et al, 2010).…”

Estrogen and schizophrenia in women: animal models lend a hand in understanding cognition

“…This pattern suggests estrogen's influence on schizophrenia onset and progression in women. It has been suggested that a woman's experience of motherhood, is accompanied by significant and necessary hormonal changes that may have an effect on certain aspects of symptoms associated with schizophrenia [25,26]. Since hormones can affect the onset and course of a disease, hormonal function should be a regular consideration in diagnosing and looking at prognosis of schizophrenia, especially in women.…”

Schizophrenia as segmental progeria

“…Postmenopausal oestrogen deficiency in women, androgen deficiency in men 48 Reduced oestrogen in women, not fully explained by medication induced hyperprolactinaemia 45 Decreased T3 and T4 serum levels 49 Reduced androgen levels associated with acute exacerbation of the illness 46 Thyroid dysfunction (hyper-and hypothyroidism frequent in schizophrenia 47 Muscle-skeletal system Neuromuscular abnormalities, including altered nerve conduction velocity and morphologic changes in muscle fibres 50 Decrease of bone mass, muscular atrophy, reduced velocity of contraction 51 Reduced bone mineral density in patients receiving prolactin-raising antipsychotic medication 47 …”