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Washington, Jan 21 - Women are generally prescribed estrogen to fight menopause related effects like bone loss and mood swings. Now, a new study has claimed the hormone replacement therapy might also protect them from schizophrenia.
The Tel Aviv University study suggested that restoring normal levels of estrogen may work as a protective agent in menopausal women vulnerable to schizophrenia.
We've known for some time that when the level of estrogen is low, vulnerability to psychotic symptoms increases and anti-psychotic drugs are less likely to work. Now, our pre-clinical findings show why this might be happening, said Prof Ina Weiner, who led the research, based on an animal model.
In their study, published recently in the journal Psychopharmacology, Weiner and her colleague Michal Arad removed the ovaries of female rats to induce menopause-like low levels of estrogen and showed that this led to schizophrenia-like behavior.
They then tried to eliminate this abnormal behavior with an estrogen replacement treatment or with the antipsychotic drug haloperidol.
They found that estrogen replacement therapy effectively alleviated schizophrenia-like behavior but haloperidol had no effect on its own.
Haloperidol regained its effect in these rats when supplemented by estrogen, Science Daily reported.
According to Prof Weiner, when the level of estrogen was low, we could see psychotic-like behavior in the animals. Moreover, the sensitivity to psychosis-inducing drugs went up, while the sensitivity to anti-psychotic drugs went down.
This is exactly what we observe in women with low estrogen levels. But we also found that estrogen, all by itself, combats psychosis in both male and female rats.
Furthermore, in low amounts estrogen increases the effectiveness of anti-psychotic drugs, she added.
As a preventative therapy, estrogen could be given to women at certain points in time (in their mid-twenties and later during the menopausal years) when they are most at risk for schizophrenia, Prof Weiner suggested.
Antipsychotic drugs are less effective during low periods of estrogen in the body, after birth and in menopause, she said.
Our research links schizophrenia and its treatment to estrogen levels. Men seem less likely to begin schizophrenia after their 40s, which also suggests that estrogen is the culprit.
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