2020, Number 1
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Salud Mental 2020; 43 (1)
Sexual hormones and mental health
Martínez-Mota L
Language: English
References: 6
Page: 3-9
PDF size: 199.69 Kb.
Text Extraction
Sexual steroids are produced by sexual glands and distributed through the blood stream
towards different tissues as the brain. In turn, the brain is a steroidogenic organ (Baulieu,
1991), which increase the chances of these hormones to influence mental functions. Sexual
hormones affect physiology and behavior throughout two action types. Organizational
actions during developmental crucial stages lead to permanent changes, such as brain sexual
differentiation. Afterwards, activational actions are established on a programmed brain
leading to transient changes, such as sexual behavior (Feder, 1981). It is no coincident that
many psychiatric disorders have their onset in adolescence when sexual hormones are rising
and new brain networks are in formation.
REFERENCES
Baulieu, É. É. (1991). Neurosteroids: a new function in the brain. Biology of the Cell, 71(1-2), 3-10. doi: 10.1016/0248-4900(91)90045-O
Feder, H. H. (1981). Perinatal hormones and their role in the development of sexually dimorphic behaviors. In Adler, N. T. (Ed.) Neuroendocrinology of Reproduction. Physiology and Behavior. New York: Plenum Press.
Handa, R. J., Burgess, L. H., Kerr, J. E., & O’Keefe, J. A. (1994). Gonadal steroid hormone receptors and sex differences in the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis. Hormones and Behavior, 28(4), 464-476. doi: 10.1006/hbeh.1994.1044
Margolese, H. C. (2000). The male menopause and mood: testosterone decline and depression in the aging male – Is there a link?. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, 13(2), 93-101. doi: 10.1177/089198870001300208
Reynolds, G. P., & Kirk, S. L. (2010). Metabolic side effects of antipsychotic drug treatment – pharmacological mechanisms. Pharmacology & Therapeutic, 125(1), 169-179. doi: 10.1016/j.pharmthera.2009.10.010
Simerly, R. B. (1993). Distribution and regulation of steroid hormone receptor gene expression in the central nervous system. Advances in Neurology, 59, 207-226.
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