Estrogen therapy not effective in curing Schizophrenia

Researcher Dr. Wan Lian Chua, Psychiatrist, Bradford District Care Trust had said that estrogen therapy to women with Schizophrenia had not given any effective improvement in their condition. The researchers compiled data from various reviews pertaining the use of estrogen therapy for treatment of Schizophrenia. Researchers conclude that the use of estrogen therapy cannot be used in treating patients before it is tested in large clinical trials as most of the study has been done in a small population of people with psychotic symptoms. The results of the study were published in The Cochrane Library. It is found that women suffering from schizophrenia seemed more vulnerable to psychotic symptoms during life phases associated with dips in estrogen levels during the period after childbirth and during menopause.

Moreover use of estrogens are linked to increased side effects such as risk of heart attack, stroke or ovarian and breast cancer. For treatment a new class of effective drugs are to be discovered like the use of Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators (SERM’s) has to be evaluated as these drugs has to be modulated in such a way that it stimulates estrogen receptors only in the required parts of the body and should not act on other estrogen receptors in uterus and breast.

Dr. Wan Lian Chua said, “We need to see better quality data and comparing data had shown that women who received estrogen therapy were not significantly different from the outcomes for patients who did not”.

Source: News wise.