Cited by 115Stress Responses and CortisolMaternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and PostpartumNeuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research

Neuroactive Steroids and GABAergic Involvement in the Neuroendocrine Dysfunction Associated With Major Depressive Disorder and Postpartum Depression

Open access
Maguire, Jamie·2019·Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience

Abstract

Stress and previous adverse life events are well-established risk factors for depression. Further, neuroendocrine disruptions are associated with both major depressive disorder (MDD) and postpartum depression (PPD). However, the mechanisms whereby stress contributes to the underlying neurobiology of depression remains poorly understood. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which mediates the body’s neuroendocrine response to stress, is tightly controlled by GABAergic signaling and there is accumulating evidence that GABAergic dysfunction contributes to the impact of stress on depression. GABAergic signaling plays a critical role in the neurobiological effects of stress, not only by tightly controlling the activity of the HPA axis, but also mediating stress effects in stress-related brain regions. Deficits in neuroactive steroids and neurosteroids, some of which are positive allosteric modulators of GABAA receptors (GABAARs), such as allopregnanolone and THDOC, have also been implicated in MDD and PPD, further supporting a role for GABAergic signaling in depression. Alterations in neurosteroid levels and GABAergic signaling are implicated as potential contributing factors to neuroendocrine dysfunction and vulnerability to MDD and PPD. Further, potential novel treatment strategies targeting these proposed underlying neurobiological mechanisms are discussed. The evidence summarized in the current review supports the notion that MDD and PPD are stress-related psychiatric disorders involving neurosteroids and GABAergic dysfunction.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3389/fncel.2019.00083

Cites

197 of 198 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The pathophysiology of postpartum depression is likely multifactorial, with evidence supporting a role for disruption of perinatal GABA signaling.

    “The pathophysiology of PPD is likely multifactorial,26,27 with evidence supporting a role for disruption of perinatal γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) signaling, the major inhibitory signaling pathway of the central nervous system.28”

    From Effect of Zuranolone vs Placebo in Postpartum Depression (2021) · cites this paper as [28]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Maguire, J.
Affiliations
Tufts University (US)
Corresponding author
Maguire, Jamie
Venue
Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience
Published
2019-03-08
Volume
13
Pages
83-83
ISSN
1662-5102 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2921588725
Cited by
113
References
197
Citations by year
2026: 13 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 10
FWCI
1.65
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Funders
National Institutes of Health (NS102937, AA026256)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
Keywords
neurosteroids, GABAergic neurotransmission, GABAA receptor, major depressive disorder, postpartum depression, neuroendocrine dysfunction, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, stress, allopregnanolone, positive allosteric modulators, life events

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review