Cited by 252Treatment of Major DepressionStress Responses and CortisolTryptophan and brain disorders

Hormonal Treatments for Major Depressive Disorder: State of the Art

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Dwyer, Jennifer B., Aftab, Awais, Radhakrishnan, Rajiv, Widge, Alik, Rodriguez, Carolyn I., Carpenter, Linda L., Nemeroff, Charles B., McDonald, William M. +2 more·2020·American Journal of Psychiatry

Abstract

Major depressive disorder is a common psychiatric disorder associated with marked suffering, morbidity, mortality, and cost. The World Health Organization projects that by 2030, major depression will be the leading cause of disease burden worldwide. While numerous treatments for major depression exist, many patients do not respond adequately to traditional antidepressants. Thus, more effective treatments for major depression are needed, and targeting certain hormonal systems is a conceptually based approach that has shown promise in the treatment of this disorder. A number of hormones and hormone-manipulating compounds have been evaluated as monotherapies or adjunctive treatments for major depression, with therapeutic actions attributable not only to the modulation of endocrine systems in the periphery but also to the CNS effects of hormones on non-endocrine brain circuitry. The authors describe the physiology of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA), hypothalamic-pituitary thyroid (HPT), and hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axes and review the evidence for selected hormone-based interventions for the treatment of depression in order to provide an update on the state of this field for clinicians and researchers. The review focuses on the HPA axis–based interventions of corticotropin-releasing factor antagonists and the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist mifepristone, the HPT axis–based treatments of thyroid hormones (T3 and T4), and the HPG axis–based treatments of estrogen replacement therapy, the progesterone derivative allopregnanolone, and testosterone. While some treatments have largely failed to translate from preclinical studies, others have shown promising initial results and represent active fields of study in the search for novel effective treatments for major depression.

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  • Mifepristone blocks both GR and progesterone receptors.

    “Mifepristone, which blocks both the GR and the progesterone receptors, is the most tested GR antagonist [78, 79].”

    From The HPA Axis as Target for Depression (2024) · cites this paper as [78]

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Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. [92]Gelenberg AJ, Freeman MP, Markowitz JC, Rosenbaum JF, Thase ME, Trivedi MH, Van Rhoads RS, Reus VI, J Raymond DePaulo M Jr, Fawcett JA: Practice guideline for the treatment of patients with major depressive disorder third edition. 3rd ed. Washington, D.C., American Psychiatric Association; 2010.
  2. [125]Talaei A, Pourgholami M, Khatibi-Moghadam H, Faridhosseini F, Farhoudi F, Askari-Noghani A, Sadeghi R. Tamoxifen: A Protein Kinase C Inhibitor to Treat Mania: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trials. Journal of clinical psychopharmacology. 2016; 36: 272– 275. 27088436
  3. [182]Blasey C, McLain C, Belanoff J. Trough Plasma Concentrations of Mifepristone Correlate with Psychotic Symptom Reductions: A review of Three Randomized Clinical Trials. Current Psychiatry Reviews. 2013; 9: 148– 154.

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Authors
Dwyer, J. B., Aftab, A., Radhakrishnan, R., Widge, A., Rodriguez, C. I., Carpenter, L. L., Nemeroff, C. B., McDonald, W. M., Kalin, N. H., & APA Council of Research Task Force on Novel Biomarkers and Treatments
Affiliations
  • University of Minnesota (US)
  • Child Study Center and Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. (Dwyer); Department of Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, and Northcoast Behavioral Healthcare Hospital, Northfield, Ohio (Aftab); Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. (Radhakrishnan); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (Widge); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif., and VA...
Venue
American Journal of Psychiatry
Published
2020-08-01
Volume
177
Issue
8
Pages
686-705
ISSN
  • 0002-953X (ISSN-L)
  • 1535-7228
OpenAlex
W3031744338
Cited by
252
References
184
Citations by year
2026: 25 · 2025: 49 · 2024: 59 · 2023: 53 · 2022: 49 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 4
FWCI
3.89
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • American Journal of Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (UL1TR001863)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH119384, R21MH111501, T32MH018268)
  • National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (UH3NS100548)
  • National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Treatment of Major Depression
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Biological Psychiatry › Tryptophan and brain disorders
Keywords
major depressive disorder, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis, hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, mifepristone, glucocorticoid receptor, thyroid hormones, estrogen replacement therapy, allopregnanolone, testosterone, treatment-resistant depression, endocrine modulation
MeSH terms
Major Depressive Disorder, Endocrine Glands, Hormones, Humans, Neurosecretory Systems, Treatment Outcome

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